THE HELICOPTER VAM 303THE HELICOPTER VAM 303DESERVED GROUNDING OF ONE OF THE MOST EXPLOITED ARMY AIRCRAFTS

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THE MISSION CONTINUESTHE MISSION CONTINUESA review of the last visit to Afganistan

A DEMONSTRATED HIGH DEGREE OF READINESS AND TRAINING

EXERCISE „MACEDONIAN FLASH 06“

No.9 Pr ice : 50 den . May, 2010

M A G A z I N E O F T H E M I N I S T R Y O F D E F E N S E O F T H E R E P U b L I C O F M A C E D O N I AM a g a z i n e o f t h e M i n i s t r y o f D e f e n s e o f t h e r e p u b l i c o f M a c e D o n i a

ARM-NATO REPORTING WEAPONS MILITARY HISTORY GAMES AND SIMULATIONS

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The Republic of Macedonia and the United States of America have a high level of co­operation. One of the numerous examples of this cooperation is the joint participation of the ARM and the US Vermont National Guard members in the joint contingent “Phoenix” in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The joint contingent “Phoenix” consisted of 79 representatives of the Regiment for spe­cial operations and the Military Police Battal­ion of the RM, together with representatives from the American Army and the Vermont National Guard has begun its mission for training and mentoring of the Afghan Na­tional Army and Police thus contributing to the coalition forces of NATO and the US in building a democratic society in Afghanistan.This event has an exceptional importance for both Macedonian and American sol diers standing “shoulder to shoulder” in accom­plishing their complex activities in the service of peace and therefore it was marked by the Macedonian Embassy in Washington with an official ceremony. The Macedonian Am­bassador to Washington, Mr. Zoran Jolevski, handed over the three flags of the ARM units:” the Rangers”, the Military Police and the “Wolves” to Major General Michael Dubie, the Commander of the Vermont National Guard in front of a large number of guests and representatives from governmental and nongovernmental organizations, legislative, administrative and defensive structures of the United States, ambassadors and atta­chés. “The cooperation between Macedonia and the United States is at very high level. This is evidence and an indication of the partner relations between the two countries. The mission of our army as part of the troops of the Special Vermont Guard in Afghanistan is another indicator of the great coopera­tion between the two armies. Practically, a complete interoperability of the two armies”, stated Ambassador Jolevski at the reception. Major General Dubie expressed his great sat­isfaction with the readiness of the Macedo­nian soldiers in Afghanistan. “In Afghanistan, according to the latest news, everything is going well. The Macedonian soldiers arrived well prepared and we are impressed by their professionalism and ability to cope with all the challenges”, emphasized Dubie.The Minister of Defence Mr. Zoran Konja nov­ski joined in the symbolical marking of the deployment of the Macedonian Army Units as part of the Vermont National Guard by sending a letter. “We have joined at this occa­sion with a sense of honor and pride. Today, in the best possible way, we are celebrat­ing the contribution of the RM to the global peace and security as well as the firm, stra­tegic partnership between Ma ce donia and the USA. Not more than twenty days ago, the Macedonian and the American soldiers marked he beginning of the joint contribu­tion towards the training and the mentoring of the Afghan National Security Forces. We are proud to have our joint mission aimed towards the priorities of the Alliance. This common engagement is a crown to the long years of partnership between the sister armies of the Vermont National Guard and the ARM, writes Minister Konjanovski in his letter, underlining the firm commitment that Macedonia continues to contribute not only towards stability and security of the region, but also to the global security and world peace. The common mission of our “brothers in arms” is a real confirmation that Republic of Macedonia is an “equal and trustworthy partner”, states Minister Konjanovski in his letter that was read in front of the others.The outspoken assessment of ther relevant Macedonian and American authorities is a sufficient guarantee that the joint contingent “Phoenix” will complete its noble mission suc­cessfully.

Zdravko Rizovski

LOGISTICS SUPPORT CONCEPT OF ARM IN MISSIONS

OBSERVATIONS AND NEW CHALLENGES

INTERVIEW WITH THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO, MR. BORO VUCHINIC

TREND OR LONG-TERM VISION FOR THE FUTURE?

MODERNIZATION OF MI-24 HELICOPTERS “ALEkSANDAR” – PART TwO

SPACE DEBRIS

THE BIGGEST THREAT FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

STATIONARY CAMPING

WITH THE ARM ARTILLERISTS

IN SERVICE OF THE ARMY JUSTICE

FROM THE PEACEKEEPER’S JOURNAL

BOMB DEACTIVATION

ANTI-DIVERSIONARY PROTECTION

LESS NUCLEAR WEAPONSFOR A SAFER WORLD

REVIEW OF THE NEW NUCLEAR STRATEGY

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SHIELD - Year II, issue 9, May 2010, published monthlyPUBLISHER - MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

PUBLISHING BOARDEmil Dimitriev (Chairman, Chief)Major general Naser Sejdini, Sashko Dimov, Lieutenant Colonel Mirce gjorgoski, Lieutenant Colonel Zdravko Rizovski,Lieutenant Colonel Meri Rindzova, Ph.D. gorgi Malkovski

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFLieutenant Colonel Zdravko Rizovski

EDITORIAL BOARDBiljana Ivanova (Copy Editor, Art and graphic Editor), Ivan Petrushevski (Associate Journalist) Ksenija Miteva (Lector), Aleksandar Atanasov (Photographs)

CONCEPTUAL CONSULTING, ART OFFICE AND DESIGNZarko Stojanovik, Oliver Kurciev, Vesna Vujadinovik, Stefan Smiljanoski

Printed by: ”Evropa 92” Kocani

ADDRESSSMINISTRY OF DEFENSE - Magazine “SHIELD”“Orce Nikolov” bb 1000 Skopje Phone: 02 038 24 17; 02 328 20 58 Fax: 02 3113 527; 02 3128 276www.morm.gov.mk; E-mail: stit@morm.gov.mk

n the framework of the strategic determination for membership to NATO and the EU, the Republic of

Macedonia continues its dedi-cation to reform for improv-ing the defence capabilities. In accordance with the goals of the Long-term Development Plan and the Annual National Program (ANP) for NATO membership, in the forthcom-ing period the Republic of Macedonia will continue with its active contribution in the international operations with units and military personnel that will gradually increase to a certain percentage, propor-tionally with the development of the deployment capacities of the ARM. As already known, by the end of 2009, Macedonia brought is approaching the comple-tion of the partnership goal to prepare one medium infantry battalion for participation in a wide range of NATO-led op-erations, deployable and able to operate with high intensity, to maneuver on all kinds of terrains and different weather conditions. This is only the first precondition for establishing a

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OBSERVATIONS AND NEW CHALLENGES

LOGISTICS SUPPORT CONCEPT OF ARM IN MISSIONS

Macedonia, in support of “friendly troops” deployed in the RM, as well as other military assignments. The Logistics Support Planning in missions Guidelines provides the guidelines and explains the metho­dology for implementing the appro­priate logistical planning and imple­mentation of the lo gistical support in conducting the operations. The pro­visions from these guidelines refer not only to the NATO­led operations, but also to the participation of our troops in operations led by the UN,

EU, OSCE or other union or coalition in which the RM participates as a member. The logistic support of the deployed ARM unit in an operation outside the Macedonian territory includes preparation, deployment, reception, staging and movement in the area of operations, operation execution and redeployment and return to the country. All these elements are con­tained in the basic Draft Concept for Logistics Mission Support which was outlined in the above­mentioned guidelines. The outline (1) provides the possibil­ity of presenting the basic idea for implementing the logistic support with the basic system elements, that is, a conditional division of the logistics organized according to the levels of responsibility. The fact that there is no single adopted terminol­ogy in the logistics that will ease the expression and the communication forces us to operate with closely de­termined terms. In this respect, the overall logistics in the RM (entities, infrastructure and resources) is the domestic logistics. After the deploy­ment on the territory in the area of operations, advanced logistic sup­port is formed to support the con­tingent participating in a specific mis­

cept represents a basis for develop-ment and transformation of the sys-tem for the logistical support of the defence and the ARM. The document may be used as a guideline in plan-ning and implementing the defence of the RM, the participation of the ARM in peace support operations and humanitarian aid, resolving re-gional conflicts and crisis, and protec-tion of broader interests of the RM, moreover, it can be used in participa-tion of the ARM units in multinational operations outside the Republic of

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battalion group which is to be carried out several years latter.The units and equipment contri bution increase brings about the increase in the responsibility of the logistics sup­port (LS) of the national contingents. The priority is one more point on the list of logistical challenges in 2010: codification, stan dardization, logis­tics infor ma tion system, acquisition system, decentralization of functions and responsibilities, optimization of lo gistics personnel, structural chan­ges, establishment of material man­agement, etc.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCESParticipation of the ARM contingents in ISAF, Althea and Iraqi Freedom was mainly based on logistics support of coalition partners in the area of re­sponsibility. Although the RM had a rather poor experience in these and similar missions, as a member of the PfP (Partnership for Peace) it often had a relatively privileged status and used the benefits of the multinational logistics support of the allied forces. Consequently, the national respon­sibility in providing logistics support was concentrated on engaging the entities in the contingent prepara­tion, deployment and return phase. The continual existence of the troops was directly dependant on the orga­nization and implementation of the logistics concept of a partner coun­try or ac cording to the existing inter­na tional agreements. On the other hand, the participation resulted in several capital benefits – gaining in­valuable international experience in defining operational needs, possible allocation of financial resources for other needs in the country, and gain­ing self­confidence and security in performing operations in a distant multinational environment etc.

LOGISTICS SUPPORT ESTABLISH-MENT IN MISSIONS In addition to the already mentioned experiences gained by participation in international missions, a good as­sumption and foundation for a more serious approach toward the estab­lishing of a logistics sup port system in missions are the achievements in the logistics field from the previ­ous year. This primarily refers to the revised National Logistics Support Concept, revised Combat Service Support Directive, Logistics Support Planning in NATO­led missions Guide­lines, National Support Element Con­cept, the activities of the integrated project teams for acquisition of mis­sion equipment, implementation of codification and current engagement of entities from the logistics in re­form processes for army structure improvement etc.The National Logistics Support Con­

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sion. The logistic support elements directly supporting the combat units in the contingent are located in the field of conducting operations.COMMAND AND CONTROLHaving in mind the Logistics Support Concept and the existing structure, and knowing the provisions of the current regulation in the ARM in this field, a successful attempt for illus-trating an outline of the command and control (C2) relations can be made between the holder of logistic sup-port from the aspect of implementa-tion of the unit operational mission requirements. The conceptual outline

contains a minimal number of rela-tions vertically, which is one of the most important imperatives created by modern logistics in a multinational environment. Consequently, the op-erational mission command, in this case the Joint Operational Command (JOC), would be the main holder of the mission and the direct relation with the unit-participant, and the Logistics Support Command (LSC) which in its formation has the Logistics Support Battalion (LSBt) and the Supply and Transport Center (STC) would be ca-pable of providing direct distribution from the National Support Element,

that is, the logistic element in the area of responsibility. Several factors influence the establishment of the logistic element, where the practice suggests engagement of a company for logistic support of the mecha­nized infantry battalion, which does not necessarily have to be a rule. The present Concept allows the estab­lishment of logistic support elements of a modular principle by escorting the previously enabled and equipped modules­units toward the mission re­quirements.The last transformation of the ARM troops should allow enhancement of the horizontal relations by increasing the responsibility of all participants in the logistics support system, which is a characteristic of all contemporary armies in the world, especially in the last few years. Thus, a perspective is opened for a positive solution of the immobility of the logistics support system and elimination of the redun­dant, expensive and unnecessary ad­ministration. It is not too much to say that with the implementation of ma­terial management projects, the ARM follows the latest trends in multina­tional logistics. Namely, the develop­ment of the function and the system of material management should en­able a more efficient system of mis­sion troops supply in near future, so that the logistic support in many seg­ments and phases should be a collec­tion of routine actions and simplified procedures.

FUNCTION OF THE LOGISTICS SUPPORT SYSTEM This outline (4) presents a possible variant of occurance of an activ­ity spectrum by the logistics holders which selects and positions the re­sponsibilities in a line of succession. In this respect, the process of mis­sion planning and Logistics Support Concept development occurs in the JOC by parallel participation of the LSC in the appropriate preparations of the resources and distribution to the final destination. This possibility allows a rational utilization of troops as it prevents the appearance of con­flict of authorization and competence overlapping, and moreover through the practical unification of the partici­pants around the main concept it of­fers security in the execution of this possibility. The outline also provides the final points and ways of current supply in all subsequent phases as a main precondition for strengthening the operational capabilities and the ability for contingent existence.The physiognomy of the presented relations in the strategic transport, disembarkment and staging phase in the area of responsibility includes new elements as well, especially at the reception, staging and onward

Basic Logistics at Home Basic Logistics Abroad

Routine procedures

Material management

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movement. A big role will be played by the host nation support entities, as well as the partners and contac-tors from the multinational logistics.The offered models for functioning of the logistic support are a logical prod-uct based on the existing regulation in the ARM concepts, rules, guide-lines and procedures, and the existing formation structure. Numerous ongo-ing reform processes in the logistics and the announced improvements of the ARM and MoD structure will bring about new challenges and, naturally, will have a significant influence on the relationships in planning and carrying

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out the logistic support of mission units. There will be a need of sugges-tions for new logistic support func-tioning models which will probably be based on the fundamental principles of logistics, the projected strategic provisions and dynamics and com-plexity of the events in the current security environment. The NATO operations in Afghanistan and the Balkans reaffirmed the need of establishing modern and capable forces, fully deployable, secure and interoperable, capable to operate in a full spectrum of conflicts and crises for a long period and on significant

strategic distances. In order to re-spond to these challenges, the logis-tics must be an efficient force capable of a joint disembarkment and long-term existence without geographical limitations. In this respect, by moving the logistics toward the operational readiness the ARM should build an effective logistics support system, compatible and interoperable with NATO, which is an imperative under-lined in the strategic determinations of the Republic of Macedonia.

Ljupco Jankulovski

ARM GS/G4Guidelines for the establishment and preparation of the Cont

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Guidelines for the establishment and preparation of the Cont

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Log. Concept+Catalogue of Capabilities

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Catalogue of Capabilieis

GuidlinesOrders

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Petrovec depo

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WITH THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO, MR. BORO VuCHINIC

INTERVIEWMinister, would you please tell the readers of „Shtit“, what is the reason behind your visit to the Republic of Macedonia?

– Before I answer your question, allow me to greet the readers of «Shtit» and to express my pleasure of having the op-portunity to give an interview for your magazine. I am here with a delegation from the Min-istry of Defence of Montenegro to pay a friendly visit to my colleague and friend, the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Macedonia, Zoran Konjanovski. Our coop-eration started in 2007, and we have es-tablished a bilateral cooperation plan for 2010, which is a big project defined in our agendas and needs to be implemented in the course of this year.

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WITH THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO, MR. BORO VuCHINIC

The Republic of Macedonia and the Re-public of Montenegro are a good exam-ple of the successful bilateral coopera-tion on the Balkans. What do you think about the bilateral defence cooperation between the two counties? – This cooperation is an excellent exam-ple of how the cooperation in the region should be. It shows that two countries with no open questions, two friendly na-tions of both countries with the same democratic values show how cooperation should be conducted, and how the rela-tions between them should be developed. I am really pleased that the cooperation in the defence area between the Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro is conducted in this way. It is our obligation to maintain and constantly enhance this cooperation.

During your visit of the Republic of Macedonia you and the Minister of De-fence, Zoran Konjanovski signed a Mem-orandum of cooperation in the defence between the two counties, thus adding a new dimension to the cooperation. What does the Memo randum of coop-eration project? – I would like to underline two important things. Due to the fact that we don't have a developed system of military education in Montenegro, we don't have an oppor-tunity to educate our officer corps, our future service personnel in the army. In accordance with the Memorandum of co-operation, in that respect we are planning to use the facilities of the Macedonian Military Academy to educate our officers in the future. On the other hand, we are going to offer training and accommoda-tion to Macedonian pilots at the Regional Training Center for pilots in Podgorica. This year we are expecting the Macedonian pilots as our first participants after which we are expecting the service personnel from the German army. Thus, with these key activities, and a wide range of other activities which we have talked about in the course of today's visit, such as visit-ing the Military Medical Center in Skopje, we are going to continue developing our cooperation. In addition to this delegation, there are three other delegations from Montenegro visiting the Republic of Mace-donia at the same time, which is the best indicator of the scope of our cooperation. We are going to continue and promote our cooperation because your experience is very significant for us.

Minister, Montenegro and the Re public of Macedonia are successfully partici-pating in international peace support missions in the world. What do you think about their contribution in that respect?

– At today's meeting with your President, Mr. Gjorgje Ivanov, I have congratulated him for the contribution of the Repub-lic of Macedonia to global peace and its participation in peace support missions. You are an excellent example. Macedonia is recognized by the leading countries in the world and by world leaders, especially with the acknowledgement received by the President of the USA recognizing the country as a leading country according to its contribution to international missions compared to its demographic capacity and as a country which provides support to global peace. As it was mentioned at

the meeting with your President today, the troops are not there to fight, but to create conditions for peace making and to create normal conditions for developing democracy and normal life. Montenegro would really like to follow that direction. Within the frameworks of our capacity, we have already equipped one unit which has already been sent to accomplish its task. In the second half of this year we are go-ing to prepare its rotation. We are send-ing soldiers to the «Atlanta» mission in Somalia to fight against the pirates. We already have soldiers in Liberia, in the UN mission, so we are doing everything we can. On the other hand, we recognize the responsibility which comes out of our mor-al obligation to, I hope, Montenegro’s and Macedonia’s and other countries’ in the

region, soon to be, membership in NATO, and the advantage provided by the collec-tive defence system. Therefore, if we want to develop and use this collective defence system, we have an obligation to give our contribution within our powers.

Minister, how much can the Republic of Macedonia with its long years of ex-perience help your country successfully accomplish the tasks assigned by the NATO Membership Action Plan?

– I think that by having good cooperation you send a good message. Both counties are ready to cooperate, which is a good thing. But, when there is an essential co-operation, then that is even better. In our cooperation both elements of cooperation are emphasized. I think that in the essen-tial part of the scope and content of our agenda for cooperation defined for this year I recognize huge benefit for both countries. I have already emphasized your rich experience gained through your par-ticipation in peace support missions, your

experience in giving military medical care and training medical teams. Montenegro has deployed a medical team in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan this year. We are already working on the train-ing of the second medical team. I be lieve that many things can be useful to us. Our obligations regarding the Euro-Atlan-tic aspirations have increased now that we have become a member of the MAP (Membership Action Plan). Macedonia’s experience in the implementation of the partnership goals and assignments is very important to us and it will help us apply everything you have done in the extent required for us. During today's meeting at the Military Academy, which will be attend-ed by the young people from our country, and especially at the meeting with Minis-

ter Konjanovski, we have touched upon many areas of cooperation to be consid-ered in the future. Basically, it is important that we are coming from one ambience, one area, and now were developing well; we have no language barriers to make our communication diffi cult in the course of learning your 'lessons learned'. Your expe-rience is valuable.

The Republic of Macedonia and Mon­tenegro have similar strategic interests and that is to become members of the Euro­Atlantic Alliance. According to you, when do you expect these two coun­tries to become members of the EU and NATO?

– Our strategic interests are membership to the EU and NATO. We share the same values in that respect. Regional coopera-tion is our priority in order to lead us to the accomplishment of these aims. What Montenegro and the Republic of Macedo-nia do in that respect is positively recog-nized by our partners. I believe that Mace-donia will overcome the name issue it has with its neighbor Greece. Montenegro firmly supports Macedonia’s membership to NATO, as we support all countries on the Balkans, because we think that is the only option which brings lasting peace and stability in the region.

How do you assess the cooperation among the countries from the A­5 group? – Montenegro is dedicated to the initia-tives in the region. We have developed

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fruitful bilateral cooperation with all coun­tries in the region and we have signed memoranda for cooperation with them. I think that that is very important, as it sends a good message about the readi­ness for cooperation in the region, which leads to broader integration processes ­ membership to the EU and NATO. Mon­tenegro rounded up its contri bution in the regional initiatives last year, firstly, in the A­5 initiative, then in the SEDM (Southeast European Defence Ministerial) process. Naturally, we are also presiding in one part in RACVIAC. When the regional initiatives are in question then we think they are very important. We think that the A­5 initiative is an extremely important mechanism for achieving a full­fledged membership to NATO. Therefore, Montenegro considers

the A­5 initiative as very important and our country believes that this initiative provides a significant assistance in our progress to achieving a full­fledged membership to the Alliance. Macedonia had a very important role in this initiative. At that time, It was an A­3 initiative, and now, with the latest enlargement, it has grown into an A­5 initia­tive. Moreover, I am very grateful for your support in becoming a member of the A­5 initiative and the support in attaining mem­bership in the SEDM process.

What are your impressions from your visit to the Republic of Macedonia?

– The visa liberalization is very important. Macedonia has fulfilled the criteria set by the European Union, whereas, we have just sent the additional answers to the questionnaire of the European Commission in Brussels. After becoming a member of the MAP at the end of last year, and a few other steps we have taken, I believe that we are steadily catching up in the future integration processes. This visit of Skopje, where I had exceptionally useful meetings, and the recent visit I had with the Minister of Defence of Serbia, as well as the visit a few days ago by the Minister of Defence of Slovenia, demonstrate the readiness of the countries of this region to cooperate. In this way, we send a clear message that we want this region to become an area of peace and stability and development of de­mocracy. In that respect, we can take the fruitful and successful cooperation in the relations between the Republic of Macedo­nia and Montenegro as a positive example.

Zdravko Rizovski

possible way and, as countries determined to achieve their Eu-ro-Atlantic strategic goals, they can provide the best example for cooperation in the region. “We would like to see Mace-donia resolve the name issue imposed by Greece as soon as possible, and in this respect, we are expecting the full-fledged membership to NATO“, said Minister Vuchinic.According to him, it is especially important that Montenegro is moving in its direction to NATO in accordance with the Member-ship Action Plan, and together with Macedonia it is contribut-ing to peace support missions, emphasizing that they have to work and meet their partner-ship obligations for joining the Alliance. “It's nice to hear that there is a country in the region that according to its participa-tion to the ISAF mission in Af-ghanistan is among the top», said Minister Vuchinic, adding that since recently, Montenegro has contributed with more than 30 soldiers.Asked when Montenegro ex-pects an invitation for NATO mem bership, the Minister em-phasized that they have to work and meet the partnership obligations. “We shall work dedi-catedly on our assignments, and when our partners consider that it is time, we shall be pleased to accept it”, stated the Minister of Defence of Montenegro.

ontenegrin cadets will be educated at the Military Academy in Skopje, and the Macedonian pilots in a certain stages will be

trained in Montenegro”, this was agreed at a recent meet­ing of the Defence Ministers of both countries, Zoran Kon­janovski and Boro Vuchinic.The respective ministers also sig ned a Memorandum of Co­o peration between Ma cedonia and Montenegro in the de­fence area.After the meeting Minister Konja novski noted that more than 60 percent of the agreed joint activities in the past year have been completed and that by the end of this year it is expected that the bilateral co­operation plans would be fully completed. “If the real picture of the Balkans can be reflected anywhere, this needs to be in our two countries that foster multi­ethnic democracy and pave their roads towards a full­fledged Euro­Atlantic integra­tion, by building re cognizable and re cognized armies in the NATO alliance”, said, inter alia, Minister Ko njanovski. According to Minister Vuchinic, the relationship between Ma­cedonia and Montenegro is based on an honest friendship between the countries. The bila teral cooperation between the two countries, according to him is conducted in the best

2CHANGE OF THE MILITARY REPRESENTATIVE OF NATO IN SKOPJE The long­term defence develop­ment plan and the new ARM force structure are the priori­ties for the next few months, for which the advice from the NATO Advisorty Team in Mace­donia will be required, stressed

the Minister of Defence Zoran Konjanovski, after the meet­ing with the new and old Se­nior Military Representative of NATO and Commander of the NATO HQ in Skopje.“The NATO Advisory team should remain in Macedonia because we still need mutual communication until the mo­ment Macedonia becomes a full­fledged member of the Alli­ance“, said Minister Konjanovs­ki after the meeting with the Senior Military Rep resentative of NATO and Commander of

the NATO HQ in Skopje, Com­modore Valentin Gagashev and newly appointed performer of these two functions, Brigadier General David Humar from Slo­venia. Minister Konjanovski expressed his gratitude to Commodore Gagashev for the overall activity and open com munication, and expressed cer tainty that the same will continue with Briga­

dier General Humar as well.The newly appointed Senior Mi­litary Representative of NATO and Commander of the NATO HQ in Skopje, Brigadier General David Humar from Slovenia, an­nouncing the support for the planned process, stressed that Macedonia is an excellent part­ner of the Alliance, particularly in NATO led operations. Commodore Gagashev ex­pressed his hope that he will soon see the Macedonian flag unfurled in the NATO HQ in Brussels.

infoSTRENGTHENING OF THE COOPERATION

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for the ARM members were cru-cial in the successful execution of the task in the mine Bucim.As previous known, on 23 March, 2010, a team from the Special Purposes Battalion - the “Wolves“, using special pro-cedures in the extremely dan-gerous and difficult conditions, managed to remove the body of Vlatko Ilkovski from the old collection system of the mine “Buchim“. When executing the task the “Wolves“ demonstrated their courage and calmness, and the high degree of their training and psychophysical readiness to perform tasks with a high risk to human life was especially em-phasized.

6A VISIT TO THE ARM GARRISONS On 15 April, teams from the Ministry of Defence visited the ARM Garrisons in the Republic of Macedonia, a propos the real-ization of the project “ARM – My True Home”. At the meeting, the

ARM members were informed about the provisions of the regu-lations provided for housing of the active military and civilian personnel serving in the Army, regarding a purchase of an apart-ment as a personal property and norms for the construction of apartments within the project. The team, led by the Minister of Defence Zoran Konjanovski, visited garrison Petrovec (Cho-jlija) and the “Ilinden” barracks in Skopje, Deputy Defence Minister Emil Dimitriev visited the garr-isons in Tetovo, Kichevo and Ohrid, and the State Secretary at the MoD, Peter Esmerov, visited the garrisons in Kumanovo, Shtip and Veles.At the meetings, the Minister, Deputy Minister and State Sec-retary reported that every mem-ber of the Army, in accor dance with the intended crite ria, has equal chances for parti cipation in the project. All ARM members greeted the realization of this project, which until now, has ex-isted only as an unfulfilled prom-ise.The agreement was to establish operating bodies at garrison lev-els, which will work on providing regular information and coordina-tion of projects.

7SIGNED MEMORANDUM OF COOPERATION On 14 April, the Minister of Defen ce Zoran Konjanovski and

3A USEFUL MEETING“The urban plans should be pre-pared by 1 Junet, after which the property would be assessed and sold, in order to support the country’s development“, conclud-ed at their meeting the Minister of Defence, Zoran Konjanovski, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mile Janakies-ki, and the mayors of the mu-nicipalities in which the projects “ARM - My True Home“ and “Old Barracks for New Development - the Government for the Citizens” are planned to be implemented. The meeting was held on 21 April in the Ministry of Defence.Minister Konjanovski, reminding that April 21 was the deadline for the members of ARM to fill out a statement of interest in order to determine the exact number of apartments, said that he ex-pected that the company that will develop and within three months complete the necessary projects will be selected by June 15, in a tender procedure. “After that, the overall docu-mentation should be forwarded to the Public Enterprise for Hou-sing and Business Facilities, after which a tender will be announced for the selection of the contrac-tor“, explained Mi nister Kon-janovski, who expects that the construction of the apartments would begin in the period from November till the end of the year.The “ARM - My True Home“ proj-ect is envisaged to be realized in Karposh - Skopje, Kumanovo, Veles, Shtip, Prilep, Kichevo and in Tetovo, while Strumica, Bi-tola, Debar, Kichevo, Radovish, Gevgelija and Dojran are among the municipalities in which the project “The Old Barracks for New Development - The Gov-ernment for the Citizens“ will be realized in the interest of local economic development.

4ENHANCING THE MILITARY COOPERATION A senior military delegation led by the Chief of General Staff of the Army, Lieutenant General Miroslav Stojanovski, recently paid a two-day working visit to the Army of the Republic of Slo-venia.The ARM Delegation, which was welcomed with high military ho nours in Ljubljana, was wel-comed by Chief of General Staff of the Army of the Republic of Slovenia, Major General Alojz Steiner. The aim of the visit was to re-view the possibilities for improv-ing and expanding the military cooperation on a bilateral plan, where one of the main topics was the possibility of using the Army training area “Krivolak» for the training of the Slovenian Army, as well as for training prior to deployment in NATO, EU and UN led missions. The two chiefs discussed the future steps for the organization of joint exercis-

es, the experiences from partici-pation in peacekeeping mi ssions and the activities of the Army regarding the im ple men tation of partnership goals as a key factor in achieving the standards for full-fledged mem bership of the Re-public of Macedonia to NATO. At the meeting, the structure of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Slovenia, the organization of logistics, participation, expe rien-ces of the Slovene army in inter-national missions, as well as the deployment of me dium infantry battalion were presented before the delegation of the Army.While in Slovenia, General Sto-janovski was welcomed by the President of the Republic of Slo -venia, Danilo Turk, and the Mi -nister of Defence, Ljubica Jelushic.

5PUBLICLY EXPRESSED GRATITUDE On the occasion of the suc-cessful action carried out by the members of SOR in the mine “Buchim“ last month, on 16 April

in the Special Operations Regi-ment Command in the “Ilinden” barracks in Skopje, the de puty director of “Buchim“ from Ra-dovish, Mr. Nikolajcho Nikolov, awarded Certificates of Grati-tude to this elite ARM unit, as well as to the personnel engaged in performing this task. The ad-viser to the Chief of GS of ARM, Major General Zoran Lekovski, SOR Commander, Co lonel Zoran Dodevski, Com mander of the Special Purposes Battalion, Lieu-tenant Orce Jordev, and mem-bers of the unit that participated in the action were also present at the meeting with the deputy director of “Buchim“. At this meeting, Mr. Nikolov did not hide his admiration for what the ARM “Wolves” had done, and expressed gratitude to ARM and SOR on the behalf of all “Bu-chim” employees. On this occa-sion he particularly stressed the courage, determination and pro-fessionalism that members of the SOR had demonstrated dur-ing the execution of the extreme-ly complex and difficult task, for which the staff of “Buchim” was still impressed. The Commander of the Special Purposes Battalion Lieutenant Colonel Orce Jordev, thanked them for their visit and the kind words, and underlined that the high level of training, physical fit-ness and motivation to help the citizens of the Republic of Mace-donia, a pledge that is constant

the Minister of the Kosovo Secu­rity Force, Fehmi Mujota, signed a Memorandum of Understand­ing between the two ministries as a basis for initiating bilateral cooperation.Minister Mujota, who was wel­comed with civil and military hon­ours, and Minister Konjanovski an nounced that the co­operation will take place initially in the area of health and joint military exer­cises, and committees that will define the bilateral cooperation plan for 2010 will be established on the basis of the memoran­dum.“We have a sufficient experience that we feel we can exchange with our neighbours to help build democratic institutions. It will also contribute to regional di mensions“, said Minister Konja­novski, among other things, after the meeting. The Minister of the Kosovo Se­curity Force, Fehmi Mujota, as­sessed the current security situ­ation in the region as better than ever. “This is just a proof that we are a factor of peace and stability in the region. Macedonia made the right move for the good of the country and the region in the right moment“, said, inter alia, Minister Mujota.

8A MEETING ON “ARM –MY TRUE HOME”On 14 April 14, in the Army Ho­me in Skopje, the Minister of Defence Zoran Konjanovski and the Minister of Transport and Communications Mile Janakieski, to gether with the presidents of Chambers of Commerce in Mace­donia, had a working break fast with representatives of construc­tion companies, to discuss the launching of activities for the implementation of the project „ARM ­ My True Home.“In the second phase, which should be completed within sev­eral days, questionnaires are be­ing sent to determine the exact number of ARM members who want to buy an apartment under the given conditions. By the end of May the tender for selection of a con tractor to do the project will be announced, after which the necessary documentation will be provided.

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the Army of Macedonia designed to train chief non-commissioned officers from all ARM units as part of the ARM key personnel was held.The aim of the workshop was for the chief non-commissioned of-ficers of the Army that perform key duties within the Army Gen-eral Staff and subordinate com-mands and units to gain basic knowledge of communication with the media, both domestic and in the course of the execu-tion of NATO, EU and the UN led missions. At the workshop participants had the opportunity to acquire basic knowledge and skills regarding speaking in front of a camera, giving a statement, writing press releases and orga-nizing and conducting a press conference. For the first time the workshop was held only with the ARM chief non-commissioned of-ficers, who, in this way, despite their basic task of managing non-commissioned corps and deliv-ery of training with professional soldiers, were able to gain the knowledge necessary for the im-plementation of NATO standards in the area of public relations, as one of the most important seg-ments for the successful execu-tion of the mission within their units.

14THE ADVANCED NCO COURSE WAS COMPLETED On 14 April, at the Centre for Individual Training (CIT) as part of the Training Command, the Advanced Course for Non-Com-missioned officers (ACNCO) ended with an appropriate cer-emony. The Course started on 20 Feb-ruary, with 37 attendees, who became Course attendants after previous selection consisting of testing and physical screenings. The concept of professional de-velopment of the ARM NCOS defines the NCOs as competent in structors with developed lea-der ship characteristics, able to successfully lead their subordi-nates in carrying out missions. This advanced course is a part of the contents of the concept of professional development of ARM non-commissioned officers. In the past two months, the non-

recently visited by a group of Dutch colonels – participants at the Course for Future Top-Man-agement from the Ministry of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.In the Macedonian Ministry of Defence, the Dutch colonels held separate meetings with Deputy Defence Minister Emil Dimitriev and Chief of General Staff of the Army, Lieutenant General Miro-slav Stojanovski.During the meetings the group of colonels had the opportunity to be briefed on political and military aspects of the Euro-Atlantic inte-gration processes, and activities undertaken in this direction in the Ministry of Defence and the ARM. They also received a short briefing on the ARM transforma-tion and operations and activities of the Republic of Macedonia for NATO membership.The study group visited the gar-rison in Ohrid, where they had the opportunity of becoming familiar with this unit as part of the Second Mechanized Infantry Brigade.During the stay in our country, the group had meetings in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior, with the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, and part of the NGOs, i.e. representatives of the Euro-Atlantic Council.

11TEST OF THE PUBLIC OPIN-IONFrom 2 to 10 April, at the request of the Ministry of Defence, in or-der to test the public opinion on issues directly related to defence and NATO integration, the Insti-tute for Democracy “Societas Civilis“ carried out a poll on the public opinion on several current issues.Asked: “If a referendum regard-ing the Republic of Macedo-nia’s entry into NATO is to be held next week, how would you vote?”, 80.2 % from the examin-ees answered they would vote «in favour of», 10.8 % answered they would vote “against”, and 9 % answered “I still do not know”, “I will not vote”, or had no an-swer at all. Asked: “Will you agree to change the name in order to join NATO?”, 65% answered “No”, 28.1% an-swered “Yes”, and 6.9% had no answer. Out of the examinees that gave a negative answer for changing the name in order to join NATO, 84% are Macedo-nians, 7.1 Albanians, and 8.9 are from the other nationalities.Asked: “How do you assess the work of the Ministry of De-

“It should be completed by 15 June, and by 15 September we are expecting the completion of the projects, after which the whole documentation will be transferred to the Public Enter­prise for Hous ing and Business Facilities, where the procedure for selection of con struction companies will start“, said Min­ister Konjanovski.“This project”, emphasized Mi­nis ter Janakieski, “including the construction of local and re gional roads, facilities for public institu­tions, airports and other projects will contribute to making the con­struction industry to be a bearer of the GDP in Macedonia.”

9EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCESOn 14 and 15 April, a high de­legation of the Armed Forces (AF) of Bosnia and Herzegovina led by the Chief of Joint Staff of the AF of Bosnia and Herzegov­ina, Lieutenant General Miladin Milojchic paid an official visit to Macedonia. The delegation was

welcomed in the ARM GS with high military honours. The del­egation was hosted by the Chief of GS of the ARM, Lieutenant General Miroslav Stojanovski. During the stay, the Chief of the Joint Staff of the AF of Bosnia and Herzegovina had a meet­ing with Defence Minister Zoran Konjanovski.At the meeting, the delegation from the AF of Bosnia and Her­zegovina was presented with the achieved level of transfor­mation and reform in the MoD and the Army, the participation in missions outside the Republic of Macedonia and the applica­tion of the Operational Capabili­ties Concept of NATO. Among the topics of discussion was also the enhancement of bilater­al cooperation between the two armies, and the guests were familiarized with the capacities and opportunities for education at the Military Academy.During their visit, the delegation from Bosnia and Herzegovina visited the Military Medical Cen­tre, the Military Academy and “Krivolak“, where they got ac­quainted with the new training capacities in accordance with NATO standards.

10STUDY TRIPAs part of the study trip, the Republic of Macedonia was

fence?”, 52.6% answered posi­tively, 21.7% negatively, and 25.7% had no answer.Asked: “How do you assess the work of the Minister of Defence Zoran Konjanovski?”, 44.2% answered positively, 27.4% negatively, and 28.4% had no answer.Asked: “How do you assess the role of the ARM in peace mis­sions and the representing of the Republic of Macedonia in the world?”, 72.6% answered positively, 9.7 negatively, and 17.7% had no answer.

12AN ANNUAL MEETING MACEDONIA - NATOA delegation from the Ministry of Defence led by the Secre­tary of State Peter Esmerov, attended the regular annual meeting of Macedonia­NATO in Brussels, on 26 April.Representatives from the Ministries of Interior, Finance and Foreign Affairs were also present at the meeting, during which the progress of the Re­public of Macedonia in achiev­ing part nership goals was reviewed. During the meeting it was confirmed that the Re­public of Macedonia fulfils its obligations towards NATO, and among the topics of discussion were the political reforms in the country.“We gave an overview of the previous achievements in the defence sphere, also we pre­sented the past achievements of the Republic of Macedonia and the readiness to join NATO, after resolving the name issue with our southern neighbour Greece“, said Secretary of State Esmerov.This meeting is held annually in the presence of the Mem­ber States of the Alliance, and other candidate countries such as Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia.

13MEDIA – TRAINING OF THE MAIN NCOsFrom 26 to 29 April in the Regional Training Centre for Communications in Skopje, a workshop for media­training of non­commissioned officers of

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In the honour of the fallen ARM members, memorial tournaments in football were held in Makedon-ska Kamenica and Bunardjik, at which members from the Special Operations Regiment, part of other ARM units as well as the local citi-zens participated.

17BELGRADE MARATHONThe 23rd traditional and most fa-mous marathon in the Balkans in length of 42 kilometres and 195 meters, which featured 300 mar-athoners from over 30 countries, was held in Berlgrade, Serbia, on 18 April. The Army, and a part of the Macedonian national team, was represented by Captain Igor Ja-kimovski from the military unit 8034, Skopje. He has partici-pated in this marathon for five consecutive years, but this year was the most successful for him since he set his personal record with a time of 3 hours, 24 min-utes and 28 seconds. In the final line up this result brought him the solid 36th position, and with this success our marathon run-ner was second in rank from the representatives of the Republic of Macedonia.Winners of this international event by winning the first three

places were the competitors from Kenya.The next presentation of the Army athletes will be at the Regional Mili-tary Mountain Running Champion-ships in Dimitrovgrad, Serbia, to be held in May this year.

Lj.P.18From the ORORM ActivitiesBILATERAL COOPERATIONIn the past several years, the Or-ganization of Reserve Officers of the Republic of Macedonia

commissioned officers who at­tended the course have gained knowledge and leadership skills that in the future they will be able to use as deputy platoon commanders and command­ers of third lines, compatible with military standards of NATO member countries, capable to undertake all responsibilities as­sociated with future obligations. The two­month training took place in the classroom and trai­ning sites of CIT, where tactics, techniques and pro ce dures of practical exercises were prac­tised. The following staff sergeants were chosen as the best three attendees: Esad Ibishi, Ljupcho Milanovski and Aco Krstevski, who received diplomas, and Staff Sergeant Toni Karadjolov, Sergeant Goce Dimovski and Staff Sergeant Darko Jovanovs­ki were commended.The commander of the cere­mony, Lieutenant Colonel Trajan­cho Petrovski, wished the par­ticipants a successful and high performance in their training and on their work positions.

Slavica Nikolovska

15MARKING THE DRIVERS DAYWith the mass introduction of motor vehicles in equipping the armies, a need has emerged to have a bigger number of well­trained drivers. With the mod­ernization of the vehicles, the drivers' training becomes even more important. “Having that in mind, in the Command of the Second Mechanized Infantry Brigade, we dedicate a special attention to the training of driv­ers“, said Captain Zoran Petro­vski, officer for movement and transport in the Brigade’s Com­mand. Although the profession­al soldiers join the unit with their driver’s test passed, different training methods are still used in order to improve their driving skills. One of the ways to im­prove their training and practice is, by all means, the competition in skilled driving, organized on the occasion of 31 March – The Drivers Day. The competition was held in two phases. In the first phase the drivers from the Brigade com­peted in the discipline of skilled controlling of the military motor vehicles “DAF“, “HUMVEE” and “HERMELIN”. The best ranking drivers from the Brigade com­peted against soldiers­drivers from the other units of the Joint Operational Command. The

celebration of the Drivers Day began with lectures held by representatives of the National Council for Traffic Safety, as well as by the Chief of the Di-vision of Movement and Trans-port within G-4 in the Army General Staff. The competition culminated with a competition between the units’ best driv-ers, on the track created by the legend of motor racing in Mace-donia, Aleksandar Dimusheski. The professional soldier Sasho Joleski from the Second Battal-ion in Logistics, in the discipline “driving DAF”, the professional soldier Zvonko Mitevski in driv-ing “HUMVEE” and profes-sional soldier Go ran Joncheski from the Communi cations Company in the discipline “driv-ing HERMELIN” achieved the best results. This year’s compe-tition was enriched with other contents. Namely, teams from two elementary schools from Kitchevo competed in skilfully riding bicycles. The stu dents from the elementary school “Vladimir Polezinoski” showed the best results. The cherry of the daily activities was the promotional drive of Mr. Dimu-shevski with a sports car on the driving polygon in the barracks in Kichevo.The competition ended by pro-claiming the winners. The JOC Commander, Major General Zoran Dimov, handed the best drivers of “DAF” certificates of apprecia-tion; the Mayor of the municipal-ity of Kichevo, Blagoja Despotoski handed certificates of apprecia-tion to the best drivers of “HER-MELIN”, and the Commander of the Second Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Colonel Metodija Velich-kovski, handed the certificates of appreciation to the best drivers of “HUMVEE“.

Mice Koteski

16 HONORING THE HEROESMarking the ninth anniversary of the death of the ARM mem-bers in Vejce, on 28 April del-egations of the Army laid fresh flowers at the memorials in the “Ilinden“ barracks in Skopje, the memorial before the Command of the for Special Purposes Battalion “Wolves“, the memo-rial on the cemetery in the vil-lage of Bunardjik, the memorial on the city cemetery in Make-donska Kamenica, on the city cemetery “Butel“ in Skopje and the city cemetery in Kumanovo. On 28 April, 2001 near the vil-lage of Vejce, in the Tetovo region, eight members of the security forces of the Republic of Macedonia, four of whom were from the Army, and the remaining four from the MOI, lost their lives. The following ARM members from the Spe-cial Purposes Battalion were killed: Staff Sergeant Robert Petkovski, Sergeant Boban Tra-jkovski, Sergeant Mile Janevski and Sergeant Igor Koteski.

has achieved quite a good col­laboration with the Association of Slovenian Officers (ZSČ), which was among the hardest working lobbyists for the ac­ceptance of ORORM in CIOR. In the context of this coopera­tion, a delegation composed of ORORM President, Prof. Dr. Gjorgji Malkovski and a member of the Executive Board, Assis­tant Professor Dr. Mende Sol­nuchevski, paid a visit to ZSČ from 14 to 18 April. The official stay of the ORORM delegation in the Republic of Slovenia was, in fact, a return visit to ZSČ ­ their represen­tatives during August 2008 stayed in the Republic of Mace­donia as guests of ORORM. The main purpose of the visit of the Association of Slove­nian Officers and Non­Com­missioned Officers was gain­ing new knowledge about the activities of ZSČ which could be implemented in the work of ORORM, exchange of experi­ences and the enhancing of co­operation.On this occasion, representa­tives of ORORM talked with the President and Secretary of ZSČ, Colonel Miha Butara and Janko Ljubic, and were informed about the results from the coopera­tion with the MoD and General Staff of the Slovenian Army, the structure of ZSČ, activities on the territory of the Republic Slovenia and the way in funding.At the meeting with the Chief of the General Staff, General Ma­jor Alojz Steiner, the President of ORORM, Prof. Dr. Gjorgji Malkovski, informed him about the activities and functioning of ORORM, its international ac­tivities and fruitful collaboration with ZSČ.As part of the rich program, several visits were paid to sig­nificant command and military formations, as well as meetings with holders of senior positions in the defence of the Republic of Slovenia. It should be noted that on this occasion, the Presi­dent of ZSČ, Miha Butara, pre­sented the ORORM President, Prof. Dr. Gjorgji Malkovski with a Medallion of the Association, and the Chief of General Staff, a high recognition of the Slove­nian Army.

Zhivko Trajanovski

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n the previous issue of Shtit maga-zine we looked at the flexibility and endurance of the original design of Mi-24 helicopter and the need for its

upgrades conditioned by the challenges deriving from the contemporary spec-trum of operations and the methods of implementation. For the Hind operator countries the most cost – effective solu-tion for enhancing the operational capaci-ties of their fleets is the modernization of the avionics of the existing platforms and their adaptation to their specific require-ments.

MILITARY AVIONICS TODAYThe word avionics is a portmanteau word of “AVIation electrONICS” created for the first time in the 1930s as a general term used to refer to all individual electronic systems fitted to the aircrafts at that time. The Second World War and the peri-od of the Cold War stimulated the invest-ments in the scientific research and tech-nological development which in turn led to remarkable improvements in the field of avionics installed in the aircrafts avion-ics. Consequently, today 50% of the cost of the modern aircraft falls on the avion-ics and it is considered the main compo-nent of the aircrafts airframe, regardless of the type of the aircraft (fixed wing, rotary wing, UAV or missile). The avionics provides the aircraft with dramatically im-proved attack, defence or reconnaissance mission performance.The rapid development of technology has influenced the development of the

complexity, robustness, memory stan-dards, as well as data processing abilities. Moreover, we save on time, energy and money invested into upgrading different systems of the aircraft.The avionics upgrades are a way of im-proving operative abilities of the Hind helicopters. This is very important since part of the operator countries are already NATO members and the rest of them (in-cluding the Republic of Macedonia) have NATO aspirations. NATO standardization and interoperability criteria include the STANAG 4555 concerning the helicopter avionics and is a vital condition for par-ticipating in NATO led missions. Modern-ization of the existing avionics is one of the many criteria for joining the collective security organizations, naturally, there are also other requirements when it comes to helicopter operation capabilities such as: appropriate crew training, airframe up-

military systems. The challenge is how to apply these advances in increasing the combat effectiveness, survivability and extension of life time and service life of the helicopters in order to avoid replace-ment sooner than expected. The development of military avionics (especially during the last two decades) resulted in an improved integration of the avionics systems. The various dis-crete subsystems on board an aircraft evolved to become more and more inter-dependent and integrated. Furthermore, the number of separate subsystems has increased due to the more complex mis-sions. Faster data processing as well as increased data flow between the avion-ics subsystems caused more effective integration of the systems. The evolu-tion of the avionics resulted in overall improvement of the performances, types of sensors, functionality, cost, integration,

MODERNIZATION OF Mi-24 HELICOPTERS “Aleksandar” – PART TWO

TRENDOR LONG-TERM VISION FOR THE

FUTURE?

grades, fitting hot and high engines, more efficient air intake filters, as well as stan-dardization of the mission preparation and execution). Again, the quickest way of meeting these requirements would be modernization of the avionics (another option is the purchasing of a new plat-form but with appropriate implementa-tion of a new system which would not prove cost-effective). The technological breakthroughs of avionics have caused a boom in the markets and resulted in promoting upgrade packages of avionics system for Mi-24 by companies like “BAE Systems”, “SAGEM”, “ATE”, “IAI”, “Elbit Systems”, “Russian Avionics” and others.

UPGRADING THE Mi-24 AVIONICSAll the above mentioned companies of-fer different upgrading packages, but the most common (and at the same time the simplest option) is modifying the platform for night missions or missions in difficult weather conditions which provides the operator countries with improved per-formances of their Mi-24. Implementing NATO and ICAO compatible navigation and communication equipment is a crucial element for all the NATO oriented coun-tries. Further and more complex upgrades of the Hind avionics are vital for enabling this helicopter to be among the most efficient aircrafts of its type. However, these upgrades require larger budgets and better preparation on the part of the operator in terms of defining the future missions of the Hind. After implementing the upgrades for night and all weather missions, what would be the next logical step? Without doubt it would be increasing the crew’s level of knowledge (the helicopter is a mul-tifunctional platform) and thus prevent unnecessary risks when operating the he-licopter under attack. This means that the pilots need to use the computer gener-ated data about the specific mission and at the same time fly the helicopter and be able to operate all the systems. One of the possible outcomes of the moderniza-tion is implementing the helmet mounted display – HMD, which helps the pilot dur-ing lower altitudes missions (the most preferable way of operating these attack helicopters because of the IC guided mis-siles). HMD displays all the basic flight pa-rameters like speed, course, altitude, the position of the aircraft, the constant rotor speed (NR) and others. The focus of the pilot is ahead (in order to reduce the strain to the eyes) and another great advantage is that the pilot has all the necessary sym-bols and data in sight which means that there is no need to keep an eye on the in-struments in the cockpit. The display can show warning or danger symbols. For an attack helicopter it is of great importance to have the generated data concerning the weapons and the ability to acquire this information about its specific task via HMD. The most advanced systems can also provide data about the speed vec-tor which is calculated on the basis of the information from the sensors for static and dynamic air pressure as well as the navigation information from the global positioning systems (GPS). Having this in-

formation the system can determine the possible future position of the helicopter based on the aircrafts speed at the mo-ment. HMD is a system that should be the basic component when upgrades are planed because of its information display potential and also due to the fact that it does not take up too much space in the cockpit ( this is especially important for the limited Mi-24 cockpit space). With further upgrades the HMD potential abilities are improved. Fitting optical and electromag-netic sensors which follow the markers placed on the helmet itself, the system can determine the pilots head position more accurately (determining the line of sight of the pilots- LOS). This enables the pilot with a single movement of the head to control the work of the sensors as well as the weapons of the helicopter. If these possibilities are in combination with the night vision goggles (NVG), the platform is enabled with multi-operational combat potential. This modification of the helicop-ter gives the aircraft improved abilities for night operated missions compared to its original model limitations. Further-more, the combat endurance and safety of the helicopter is improved due to the night conditions. “Elbit” is the company that has set the standards for HMD and it provides a sensory device that is placed on the night vision goggles (without any modifications of the goggles) which gives the pilot all the necessary flight informa-tion (especially important for night flights). Another possibility for upgrading the at-tack helicopter is implementing mission management systems based on digi-tal maps. The basic aim of this system would be presenting the image of the helicopters movement on a digital map with adjustable map scale (depending on the specific mission). This system would function on the basis of the information provided by a satellite system (GPS), an inertial sensor (INS), or a combined satel-

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lite/inertial sensor (INS/GPS also known as EGI- embedded global and inertial) as well as the doppler system of the helicop-ter (thus gaining greater stability and pre-cision). Today’s digital map systems are in colour which is useful for determining the position of the helicopter and the encom-passing environment by distinguishing the terrain bellow and above the helicop-ter at the same altitude. These systems have the option to display tactical data (advanced digital maps), for example the position of enemy or friendly forces. The most important feature of this system is of course the display of the locations of the enemy`s air defence units as well as the areas of operation. This type of system operating with the help of mul-tifunctional display (MFTD) needs to pro-vide the option for making changes of the mission during the flight itself. Depend-ing on the newly acquired information the system should be able to easily apply the new symbols in order to change the path for entering or leaving the areas of opera-tion, and perform new tasks received af-ter take-off. Other than the mission man-agement the MFTD can also provide the option of managing other subsystems of the aircraft (for example, weapon status or the radiofrequency list). For presenting the flight information usually additional multifunctional displays are being used so that the crew can have an overall view of all the elements of the flight.The next step of course would be inte-grating additional sensors in Mi-24. With the recent development of the electro-op-tical devices the attack helicopters today, beside their basic aim (attacking enemy ground targets), are acquiring additional tasks - they have become “the eyes and ears” of the battlefield. Electro-optical devices such as the TV-camera (CCD Cam-era – Charge Coupled Device camera), the infrared camera (FLIR–Forward Looking Infrared) and the laser rangefinder, give

crew members. The upgrades offer improved helicopter weapon systems, and thus securing the day or night use of the machine gun and the IC guided missiles with integrated weapon calculation and their presenta-tion on HMD including the individual line of sight, the copilots line of sight, the chosen weapon, as well as the point of impact. The weapons are controlled with the help of the HOCAS system, the use of HMD and appropriate switches on the command joystick of the electro-optic platform.

WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP?Without a doubt we can say that Mi-24 Aleksandar is an example of the new op-erational capabilities of the Air Force Wing as well as the Macedonian Army. The po-tential of this modernization should be implemented within the army and in co-operation with the other units, especially the members of the special units. How-ever, the Wing should continue with the development of these capabilities in order to be ready to respond appropriately to increasing threats and new challenges. This is why the work on the project “Alek-sandar” should continue as a strategic priority of the Wing, concerning the fol-

lowing issues: – finalizing the stand-off capacity of the

platform by implementing laser guided missiles in the armament system;

– standardization of the fleet in order to prevent the “negative” transfer of the crew placed in an inconvenient situa-tion to operate two different platforms (the original and modernized Hind):

– improving the combat readiness and endurance by integrating the system for passive protection (MAWS – Mis-sile Approach Warning System) of the helicopter;

– implementing data link (DL) for ex-change of information;

– integrating the new “hot and high” en-gine type.

With these additional upgrades the Mi-24 “Aleksandar” helicopter would pre sent a true example of a 21st century combat helicopter and would of course be a re-gional leader when it comes to its combat platform. The project “Aleksandar” has shown that we can transform an older generation platform into a modern heli-copter with great combat potential. Oliver Ilijevski

form, Compact Multi Purpose Advanced Stabilized System (COMPASS) which in-corporates a colour TV, infrared camera, a laser rangefinder and automatic tracker, interactive with the digital map, the heli-copter weapon subsystem as well as the HMD) which guarantee the precision and stability of the system. The upgrades of the Mi-24 Aleksandar he-licopters enable:– modern way of presenting the main

and additional flight information to the crew members;

– reconnaissance capabilities;– modern flight navigation;– modern communication equipment;– modern radio and navigation equip-

ment;– 24-hour operability; – application of one of the most revol-

utionary examples of the technological development of combat helicopters – HMD;

– modern weapon management;– improved weapon precision.Needless to say, that these upgrades greatly improve the operation per for-man ces of the helicopter. However, we should not forget the advantages for the crew members, which results from the upgrades. We will mention some of the

most important:– improved level of information about the

tactical surroundings;– improved and simplified way of operat-

ing the aircraft;– improved cockpit management;– improved crew safety;– more efficient performance of the spe-

cific tasks.The night capabilities of the platform are improved with the implementation of the HMD which enables the crew to have in sight the information acquired from the systems and scan the surroundings.The reconnaissance abilities are real-ized through the electro-optical platform COMPASS which displays the image of the target distance as well as laser tar-geting. The image can be presented in colour multi functional display (CMFD) or with MFTD (touch display), while the line of sight of COMPASS is indicated on the digital map as well as the HMD. All the subsystems are integrated, and the transfer of information is done via the 1553B digital databus in order to enable real time and accurate processing of the new information and their display to the

the modern helicopter stand­off capacity since they enable acquiring, identification and targeting outside the enemy weap­ons range of fire (if you take into con­sideration that the missions are done at night time, then the stand­off capacity is a very important factor). Moreover, these devices also make the helicopter the main source of tactical information and thus there is a need for further upgrad­ing­ that is implementing DL – data link, so that there is a possibility for receiving and sending acquired information about the enemy elements in various types of operations (helicopter­unmanned aircraft, helicopter­ soldier, helicopter­ command center and other). In addition, when it comes to information sharing it is very important to pay attention to the securi­ty element­ the need to protect the infor­mation that are being transmitted from the helicopter is more than obvious (yet another element for upgrading). The above mentioned upgrades suggest that the challenges of modern way of combat demand greater performances and abilities from the helicopters and its crew. A vast amount of information col­lected from the different systems on the helicopter should be processed (including the information from the weapon sys­tem, the electronic protection system and others) in order to make it easier for the crew members to make an on–spot decision concerning the specific mission or task. One very important device that enables all this is the mission computer­MC, which represents the hearth of the attack helicopter avionics and it is the main element for appropriate operation. The mission computer should be a device with open architecture (open, modular architecture is a necessary in the field of modern military avionics) and it should use a commercial microprocessor and a software which would enable hardware replacement without disrupting the sys­tem.

MACEDONIAN UPGARDES OF Mi-24 “Aleksandar”The modifications and upgrades of Mi­24V helicopters, which are part of the Macedonian Air Force Wing, are one of the most complex and integrated up­grades of the Mi­24 avionics on the mar­ket today and is a result of the coopera­tion between the Israeli company ”Elbit Systems” and domestic resources (mainly human resources). This is confirmed by the fact that this Mi­24V “Aleksandar “ is a unique modernized attack helicopter of its type and Macedonia and the Macedo­nian Army should be proud of it. Mi­24 “Aleksandar” has all the above mentioned subsystems (as well as a range of others) among which we should mention the subsystem hand on stick col­lective ­HOCAS which gives the crew the ability to operate with the helicopter sys­tems, but do not need to take off their hand from the command joysticks. Also the system for weapon managing which drastically improves the necessary time for reaction while targeting and operates on modern sensors (like EGI which is one of the most advanced of its type and of course the gyro stability electro optic plat­

18

ecently at the military part of the “Al-exander the Great“ airport in Skopje, in the “Strasho Pindzur” barracks, for the first time in the history of the Mace-

donian Air Force the helicopter Mi–17 was solemnly “sent” on a deserved short vaca-tion. To be more precise, on April 1, 2010 the helicopter Mi-17 with licence plates VAM 303 made a planned flight of the last 31 minutes of the designated time of 1000 hours between overhauls. The cer-emony is worth mentioning because for the first time since the use of helicopters in the ARM, a transport helicopter spent the early flying resource. The last flight of the helicopter happened in the presence of ARM and MoD representatives, as well as a large number of officers from the Air WING.

Before that, the rich arsenal of aircrafts (over 40), weapons and MTC was with-drawn from the airport Petrovec, with the exception of a small part of weapons and equipment that were kept. Due to the im-posed embargo on Macedonia, Mi-17 heli-copters were purchased as a civilian ver-sion and were initially painted white. Later on, in 1996 this measure was abolished by the Security Council of the UN, and shortly after, four helicopters got camouflaged co-lours and military markings (VAM, Macedo-nian Air Force).In 2005, in accordance with the Recon-struction Program of the Army, the Air Brigade was transformed into a smaller, more compact unit called WING (short from: Air Force Reconnaissance-Attack Group), which started with new challenges

DESERVED GROUNDING OF ONE OF THE MOST EXPLOITED ARMY AIRCRAFTS

THE HELICOPTER

VAM 303The Air Force of the Republic of Macedo­nia was constituted by a decision of the President of the Republic of Macedonia on April 10, 1992. The ARM AF and AD Com­mand, the Air Force Brigade with aviation, transport and combat helicopter squadron where thus established. At that time the training of pilots was carried out on light aircrafts such as Utva­75. On June 28, 1994, the Macedonian Air Force received four transport helicopters Mi­17, one of which was the helicopter VAM 303. Since then, the transport and combat training has been performed on these helicopters. The AF was qualified to conduct the transport of people and MTC, for VIP transportation, fire missions, exer­cises, for medical evacuation, search and rescue and other missions.

Kosovo and the mountain top Ljuboten. During the demarcation of the border, 15 major border pillars as well as 20 smaller ones were set along the mountain range of Korab and Shar Planina.The helicopter Mi-17, licence plates VAM 303, is the best example of a “good in-vestment” in the helicopter resources. The members of the Air Force WING showed that this is the best method to invest in the training of pilots and Air Force technical personnel, for supporting the activities of JOC/ARM units and other governmental and nongovernmental entities and, natu-rally, the invested funds of the MoD of the Republic Macedonia fully paid off. A large number of officers from the Air-borne WING as well as the higher Com-mands of the ARM/MOD stand behind the success story of the Mi-17 helicopter, licence plates VAM 303. I am referring here to the Air Force technical personnel at all levels of maintenance of the helicopter, and the pilots with their proper manage-ment of the helicopter resources in terms of training and tasks in the Air Force WING.The solemn act of grounding the helicopter VAM 303 on April 1, 2010 was attended by Major General Zoran Dimov, Commander of the Joint Operational Command of the Army, Air Force WING Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kire Kolevski and other Command representatives, repre-sentatives from the Office of the Military Air Force Authority within the Ministry of Defence, the Commander of Helicopter Transport Squadron, Major Slobodan Iva-nov (commander of the home unit of the helicopter), and all the members of the Transport Helicopter Squadron. The honour to perform the last flight with this helicopter was given to the crew con-sisting of: Lieutenant Colonel Kire Kolevski, Lieutenant Colonel Stojko Pejovski and the flying-technicians, Staff Sergeant I class Zlatko Stojanovski and Staff Sergeant I class Gorancho Trifunov.Frankly, part of the audience members was sad to see such a beautiful helicop-ter go, however, technical and safety pro-cedures required that. We hope that this helicopter will adorn the sky above Mace-donia again, after the conducted general overhaul and its future enabling for further flying, as soon as possible.

Dragan Pavlovski

hazards to the security of Macedonia that exceed their abilities and capacities, car-rying special cargo (installation of pylons and cable railways, transport of contain-ers, transport of parts of the commercial enterprises), delivering assistance to the affected population, participation in activi-ties with the Red Cross of the Republic of Macedonia, with numerous governmental and nongovernmental organizations, etc. In a word, quite a wide range of tasks so that resources invested in it have paid off more than once. The helicopter VAM 303 was the first he-licopter that was upgraded in 2004 in ac-cordance with the first stage of moderniza-tion (JASMIN). During the mo dernization, the helicopter was upgraded with the sys-tem for night-time flight ANVIS-Hood 24, which enabled the use of the helicopter in night conditions. The first training with the night-time flying system ANVIS-Hood 24 was conducted on the VAM 303 heli-copter in the period October-November 2004. The training was conducted by an authorized Israeli instructor with the first pilots-instructors for the night-time flying system ANVIS-Hood 24 in the ARM. Later on, on the same helicopter, the additional trainings of the ARM pilots regarding the night-time flying system ANVIS-Hood 24 continued with instructors from the WING. In the course of June 2008, within three working days, the demarcation of the bor-der between Macedonia and Kosovo was carried out with the VAM 303 helicopter. The flights were carried out by the helicop-ter from Popova Shapka, where the pillars were attached to wire cables and taken to previously established elevations at the junction of the three borders with Albania,

such as the program for modernization of aircrafts and taking part in the internation­al NATO and EUFOR peace missions.

HELICOPTER IDENTITY CARDThe helicopter VAM 303 was manu­factured in 1990, and bought by ARM in 1994. After the entry into operational use, the helicopter VAM 303 within ARM had flown for approximately 8 years, af­ter which the specified time resource of 10 years expired. During that time it had flown for 695 hours, and on July 4, 2002 it was sent to its first general overhaul with an unfilled time resource in the overhaul institute Aviakon, Ukraine.The same helicopter, after the completion of the general overhaul, arrived in Macedo­nia in April 2003. After the first overhaul, the helicopter got an additional resource of 1000 flying hours, and an eight years time resource. From then until April 1, 2010 the helicopter had flown 1000 hours, and had justified the funding, logistical support and efforts that the pilots and Air Force technicians from the Air Force WING had placed into it, the best possible way.

A SUCCESS STORYThe Mi­17 helicopter, licence plates VAM 303, was one of the most exploited air­crafts in the Army, with the largest per­centage of performed missions, as well as the highest percentage of operational ca­pability. It was used to carry out the basic mission of the Airborne WING, which is the defence and protection of territorial integ­rity and independence of the Republic of Macedonia in accordance with the Consti­tution, the Law on Defence and National Security and Defence Concept of the Re­public of Macedonia.The most frequent tasks performed with the helicopter VAM 303 were the follow­ing: education, training flights, internal cargo (passengers and equipment), exter­nal cargo, fire ex tinguishing, control of bor­ders, ro tation of personnel and transport of ma terials to Solunska Glava, search­and­res cue­missions, MEDEVAC­missions (eva cua tion of injured ), VIP transport, FAST ROPE with members of the special units, participation in numerous exercises and preparations for the exercises in our country, support to the Ministry of Interior forces in dealing with threats, risks and

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THE HELICOPTER PARTICIPATED IN SEVERAL INTERNATIONAL EXERCISES

AND MISSIONS

– COOPERATIVE KEy 2003, PLOVDIV, BUL­GARIA;

– COOPERATIVE KEy 2005, PLOVDIV, BUL­GARIA;

– EAGLE САР 2005, AIRPORT “FARKA”, ALBANIA;

– PARTICIPATION IN DECLARED FOR CES IN DEALING WITH REGIONAL CON FLICTS AND CRISES, I.E. IN SE VERAL ROTATIONS IN THE ALTHEA MISSION, 2006­2008 IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (MOSTAR AND SARAJEVO).

20

THE BIGGEST THREAT FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

SPACE DEBRIS

PACE DEBRIS: WHAT IS IT?The human race has piled up huge mountains of garbage on Earth but we did not stop there; we have man-

aged to create some waste in our planets orbit. At the altitude ranging from hundred to thousand kilometers there is a huge cloud of objects which moves with amazing speed - up to 40.000 km/h. When it comes to the term space debris we have to give a more specific explanation. Space debris or space junk is a collection of objects in the orbit around the Earth that were created by humans but no longer serve any useful pur-pose. These objects consist of everything from spent rocket stages, defunct satel-lites to explosion and collision fragments. The debris also includes parts of rockets and spacecrafts, equipment and tools that were used by the astronauts and objects released due to the impact of micrometeor-oids onto spacecraft. Considering the possible dangers from these impacts several studies and proj-ects were conducted in order to identify and locate these objects in the Earth orbit and thus prevent catastrophic outcomes. Some of them used optical telescopes or short-wavelength radars for more accurate measurement and assessment of the num-ber and size of the objects in space. Other projects used microscopes to study space-crafts that had returned to Earth looking for impacts that had already taken place dur-ing the mission but were not noticed. This proved successful and as a result several holes from debris collision were found on

21

ing scenario, attempts were made to limit the growth of the debris and one particu-larly effective solution was implemented by McDonnell Douglas. This solution was to vent the remaining fuel from the tanks of the rocket boosters, which eliminated the pressure build-up in the tanks and thus prevented their explosion. Other countries, however, were not as quick to adopt this sort of measure because of individual space programs, and the problem continued to grow especially due to a large number of launches in the Soviet Union.

KESSLER SYNDROMEThe NASA scientist, Donald Kessler in one of his papers in 1978, presented a new possible scenario – the cascade collision, which was later known as the “Kessler Syndrome”. This syndrome suggests that because of the large number of debris in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), there will be constant debris collision, which will result in creating new debris. Consequently, the or-bit around the Earth will have an increased debris density that for a long period of time even launching of satellites into the orbit would become a problem. The first collision known as the ablation cascade will cause an explosion and a “cascade” of chain reac-tion of other explosions (and collision of all satellites). The effects of these collisions are quite dangerous because they can cause a “domino effect” Any impact between two objects of sizeable mass spalls off shrap-nel debris from the force of collision and if there is such a collision the outcome could

be devastating. Their collision could result into producing smaller pieces of debris that could cause further explosions. Kessler in another study “Collisional cascad-ing: The limits of population growth in low earth orbit” concluded that the problem of debris density could be categorized into three regimes. With a low enough density the addition of debris through impacts is lower than their rate of decay, and the problem does not become significant. Be-yond that is a critical density where addi-tional debris can quickly upset the system and lead to additional collisions. At a high enough density the rate of production is greater than decay rates. This worrying possibility became the new use of the term “Kessler Syndrome”.

some sections of the American Skylab and the Apollo CSMs. The fact that the space debris was the primary source of collisions in space was surprising for the scientists since they happened in the period of the 1960s and 1970s, the very beginning of space exploration.

NORAD CATALOGSince the earliest days of the space race, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) had maintained a da-tabase of all known rocket launches and the various satellites placed in the orbit. They also kept record about the aerody-namic shields that protected these satel-lites during launching, and the upper stage booster rockets that placed them in the orbit. This catalog is known as the Space Object Catalog and it was created with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Those who were assigned to maintain this database were also aware of a number of other objects in orbit, many of which were the result of on-orbit explosions. Some of these were deliberately caused as a part of 1960’s anti-satellite weapon testing, while others were the result of rocket left-over fuel explosion. Knowing the importance of having a data-base about these objects, John Gabbard, a NORAD employee, took upon himself to keep a separate catalog of as many of these objects as he could. Studying the results of these explosions, Gabbard devel-oped a new technique-“Gabbard diagrams” (or plots) for predicting the orbital paths of their products, which are widely used to-day. After NORAD catalog came out, some further studies and measurement with an optical telescope had been done. From these optical measurements it was evi-dent that the published object population in the catalogue was too low, by at least 50% less that the actual number. However, we should mention some important facts about the NORAD catalog. First of all, the database had information for at least the majority of the large objects in the orbit. Secondly, NORAD deliberately eliminated some of the launches and objects (mainly military satellites) due to the fact that at that time they were considered to be mili-tary secrets. One discovery that was par-ticularly disconcerting was that 42% of all cataloged debris was the result of only 19 events, explosions of spent rocket stages, mostly from U.S. Deltas rockets.

DEBRIS GROWTHAccording to scientific studies, in 1981, there were about 5.000 objects orbiting around our planet. Unfortunately, the real number of objects was much greater. By the late 1990s the new Ground-based Electro-Opti-cal Deep Space Surveillance system quickly found new objects within its resolution and the new results had shown that from the majority of 28.000 launched objects, only about 8.500 had remained in orbit. By 2005 this number had been adjusted up-ward to 13.000 objects, and a 2006 study raised this to 19.000. As for the number of satellites, since the launch of Sputnik I, 4 October 1957 until 1 January 2008, 6000 satellites were launched , of which 400 are orbiting far from the Earth orbit and from the rest 5600 satellites only 800 are still active. Faced with this potentially worry-

THE BIGGEST THREAT FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

THERE IS “SOMETHING” UP THERE. HOWEVER, THAT “SOMETHING”

IS NOT RELATED TO HUMAN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. RECENTLY

THE ORBIT AROUND THE EARTH CANNOT BE REFERRED TO AS AN EMPTY AND OPEN SPACE

ANYMORE. ON THE CONTRARY, THIS SPACE HAS BECOME FILLED

WITH THOUSANDS OF OBJECT ORBITING AROUND THE EARTH

AT VARIOUS DISTANCES. THE COLLECTION OF OBJECTS POSES A

THREAT TO OUR SPACE EXPLORING AND SPACE TRAVELLING. THE

HUMAN RACE HAS ALWAYS STRIVEN TO “CONqUER” THE

SPACE AND THIS HAS BECOME AN IMPERATIVE SINCE THE USA

PRESIDENT, GEORGE BUSH IN HIS SPEECH IN JANUARY, 2004,

ANNOUNCED THAT THERE WILL BE ANOTHER EXPEDITION TO THE MOON AND EVEN EXPLORING THE

SPACE FURTHER ON

BY Ivan Petrushevski

22

SPACE DEBRIS IN LOWER EARTH ORBIT (LEO)As we mention previously, every satellite, space probe and manned mission has the potential to create space debris. Each piece of shrapnel has the potential to cause fur-ther damage, creating even more space de-bris. With a large enough collision (such as one between a space station and a defunct satellite), the amount of cascading debris could be enough to render Low Earth Orbit essentially unusable. The problem in LEO is compounded by the fact that there are few “universal orbits” that keep spacecraft in particular rings, as opposed to GEO, a single widely-used orbit. The closest would be the sun-synchronous orbits that maintain a constant angle be-tween the sun and orbital plane. Further-more, LEO satellites are in many different

orbital planes providing global coverage, and the 15 orbits per day typical of LEO satellites results in frequent approaches be-tween object pairs. Since the sun-synchro-nous orbits are polar, the Polar Regions are common crossing points. One of the ad-vantages of this most frequently used low earth orbit (400 km above Earth) is that the residual air drag causes friction which helps the decay and the process of destruction of the debris. Also, an expansion of the at-mosphere (like the one in the 1990s) leads to an increased air drag to the fragments which results in a shorter orbit life time and lower debris density. Another reason for decrease of debris population in one of the most commonly-used orbits was the rapid reduction in launches by Russia.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GEO?At higher altitudes, where atmospheric drag is less significant, orbital decay takes much longer. Slight atmospheric drag, lunar per-turbations, and solar radiation pressure can gradually bring debris down to lower altitudes where it decays, but at very high altitudes this can take millennia The problem that is espe-cially problematic in the valuable Geostation-ary Orbit (GEO), concerns the satellites that often share the same orbital path. Active satellites maintain their station but if they become inoperable they become a collision concern. However, one positive thing about GEO is that rotation of objects (for example, satellites) is much slower than in LEO (the maximum velocity in GEO is 100 m/s). However, there is one question that trou-bles the scientist: Does the data gathered from the monitoring and tracking of the debris present the real situation in GEO? Moreover, the fact that GEO is too distant makes it is difficult to perform accurate measurements of the existing debris espe-cially for objects smaller than 1 metre. It is thought that within these orbits there are still some empty spots or at least ar-eas with lower space debris density. They are called “junk-free zones” and are mostly used by NASA for calculating the trajectory of their space shuttles

WAYS OF TRACKINGThe threats from the space debris have been taken seriously, thus sophisticated systems for effective tracking of these ob-jects in space have been developed. Radar and optical detectors such as lasers are the main tools used for tracking space debris. However, tracking space debris bigger than 1cm is difficult due to the limited abilities of the observatories. One of the most famous observatories for determining space debris was the NASA Orbital Debris Observatory which used 3- meter liquid mirror transit telescope. It was based in New Mexico and it was functioning from 1995 until 2002. When this observatory was closed some of its parts were used for the construction of the 6- meter “Large Zenith Telescope”. De-spite, the frequent monitoring and keeping a catalog database due to their huge num-ber (there are more than 600,000 objects larger than 1 cm in orbit) the majority of de-bris objects remains unobserved. Other sources of knowledge on the actual space debris environment include measure-ment campaigns by the European Space Agency (ESA) with the Space Debris Tele-scope (TIRA). The data gathered during these campaigns updates the space debris database and thus helps the assessment of impact risks caused by these objects.

NASA-LMTTIRA (ESA)

Goldstone radarHaystack radar

Cobra Dane phase array radar

RADARS FOR TRACKING SPACE DEBRIS

One proof of how risky the mission in Af-ghanistan is is the fact that a similar Turkish helicopter crashed on 23 March killing one soldier.The view from the aircraft window is like a glance in the past. There are small ground houses surrounded by high fences and dust, which is all around, mixed with water, is the only available building material. The outskirts of Kabul, at least from the air, look like the town Alexander the Great arrived in 330 BC. The current capital of Afghanistan is older than 3000 years, and it was ruled by many in the course of the centuries. Many tried to conquer this important stra-tegic point, the crossroad of commercial roads from South and Central Asia.Nevertheless, apart from the modest hous-

es there are also big facilities in Kabul. Most of them are used for military purposes, but there are also blocks of flats, a legacy from the 70s and the 80s, a period when the country was under Soviet control.

HOLDING THE MACEDONIAN FLAGThe helicopter flight from the airport to the ISAF HQ lasts for around 10 minutes, the delegation led by the Minister of Defense Mr. Zoran Konjanovski and the Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Miroslav Stojanovski was welcomed by Macedonian soldiers, standing in line and holding the Macedonian flag. If the barbed wire from 1389 is on one side, 2010 is definitely on the other side, both in terms of the calendar and the conditions.

ot only the Persian calendar which is used here, but also the living condi­tions in most of Afghanistan give the impression of 1389. Poor houses made of bricks and mud, shops of

exotic food, the biggest buildings are the blocks of flats a residue from the Soviet times, similar to the ones Skopje got after the earthquake in 1963, which as a result of the war seem exactly as if they had been hit by an earthquake. Barricades, barbed wire and checkpoints could be seen at each one hundred meters. This is Kabul, a city of less than two million people, the capital of the country where war has been raging for the last fourteen years. As you get off the plane you will be faced with the dry dusty air, although the city is at 1800 m above sea level the climate is almost desert­like. During the day the sun shines mercilessly, the temperature reach­es 35º C, and at night it could drop below zero. There are frequent winds that lift the dust from the surrounding mountains. Here planes are never delayed due to fog because it’s never foggy, but landing could be delayed because of clouds of thick dust. The airport, built in the 60s, was recently renovated. The biggest part of it is still used for military purposes. During the Tal­iban regime, as a result of the sanctions, there were no international flights. After a decade­long pause the first foreign com­mercial plane landed in 2002.Our first rendezvous with Kabul was from the air. Our Turkish friends met us at the airport and took us to the ISAF HQ by he­licopters. This is the safest part of the city, the center of all events.

A REVIEW OF THE LAST VISIT TO AFGHANISTAN

THE MISSION CONTINUES

23

24

the latest Hollywood films for free. After presenting the project “ARM – My True Home” and discussing the possibility of buying a flat with the help of the Ministry of Defense, the Minister read the letter written by the Macedonian Prime Minister.“Strength and honour are compliments that have characterized brave men and women throughout history, those who are ready to attain the highest ideals for common welfare. Strength and honour are your compliments as well. Modern time brings many challenges. The struggle of mankind and the civilization development and benefits demand a full support to those who need help, to be humane and persistent, courageous and ethical. By contributing to world peace and stability and to the development of democracy for the Afghan people you are aiming towards those civilization goals. This should make you proud as we in Macedonia are proud of you”, said Mr. Konjanovski.The Chief of General Staff spoke very highly about the 150 Macedonian peace officers who provide security to the ISAF command.“Your good behaviour, your good acts confirm the success achieved here in Af-ghanistan. You have demonstrated that you have the abilities and the capacity, you have demonstrated that you are pro-fessionals and I have no doubts you will behave like professionals till the very end of the mission”, said the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Miroslav Sto-janovski, in his address to the peace offi-cers. The Member of Parliament, Vladimir Gorcev was in Kabul for the third time, as a Head of the Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Security. He also had some encouraging words for the Macedonian peace officers saying that the most impor-tant thing is to take care of each other, to be professional until the end and to come back to Macedonia safe and sound.“When an unexpected visitor rings the doorbells of your homes your fathers, mothers, wives, daughters or sons might think he brings them bad news. That’s why you have to take care, May God be with you, May your professionalism and training demonstrated every day keep you safe. You are all someone’s daughters or sons, brothers or sisters, that is way you have to look after each other, be united, keep together and the Ministry, the Gov-ernment and the President of the Mace-donian Parliament will support you”, said Vladimir Gorcev.

EASTER PARTY IN KABULThe reason for the Macedonian delegation visiting Kabul was Easter which was cel-ebrated with a party for the peace officers from almost all countries who are fighting shoulder to shoulder in the defence and re-building of Afghanistan. Macedonian bar-beque and alcohol free beer were served at the party, as a precondition for a good party, and a reminder of the responsibility of the soldiers to always be up to the task.Our hosts presented themselves in yet an-other role, they prepared and served the food.“I secure the main ISAF HQ, but tonight in honour of the Minister and the General I am a Chef. The living conditions here are excellent, we work together with other sol-diers, we play football, we spend time to-

There are international shops, restaurants, cafes, cinemas and fitness centers in the military bases. The Macedonian flag, stands together with the flags of 42 coalition countries participating in the defense and rebuilding of Afghanistan.The Cherry Canon could be seen here, in the middle of Kabul, as a symbol of the Mace-donian presence and its commitment to the mission.The Macedonian delegation had a meeting with general McChrystal, the Commander of ISAF in Afghanistan. He considers our peace officers as an example of profession-alism and exceptional preparedness, and their contribution to the success of the mis-sion as priceless. We didn’t spend a lot of time here…

BROTHERS IN ARMSTwo Turkish helicopters took us back to the airport where we left for Bagram on an American military transporter. The flight was beyond comfortable, but it was the safest and fastest way of travelling. Half an hour later we landed in the town where 79 Macedonian peacekeepers had arrived couple of weeks ago and were waiting to be deployed.Since it was Easter the Macedonian del-egation was welcomed according to the Macedonian tradition and customs, with dyed eggs.It was a great pleasure for the Minister to whish all the best to all Macedonians from Afghanistan, in his behalf and on behalf of all the ARM members. “We’ll do our best to proudly carry the Macedonian flag and to justify our role in this mission. Macedonia is a small country by territory, but its role fighting against ter-rorism is significant”, said the Minister of Defense Mr. Zoran Konjanovski.The Macedonian peace officers stationed in Bagram will serve under the command of our allies, the Americans, who promised to look after them as if they are their own brothers.“I am extremely satisfied that we have had the opportunity to cooperate with our Macedonian brothers for many years in Ver-mont as well as in Macedonia. Last autumn we spent time together with them in the most demanding USA Army training cen-ter in Louisiana. We carry nice memories of those moments. American soldiers are very happy to serve with our Macedonian broth-ers in this very complex mission”, stated Col. Will Roy, 86th artillery fighting team commander.

A HOME AWAY FROM HOMEAfter Bagram we went back to Kabul. This time we had the opportunity to spend more time with 150 Macedonian peace-keepers living and serving here.“The living conditions are excellent; we have made friends with people who live here in the base. We mostly cooperate with the Turks, but with others as well. I would re-turn here to represent Macedonia without any doubt whatsoever, said Sgt. Ivica Smi-levski.There are only four women among them and they have the same obligations.“Life in Kabul is a typical military life, but everything is organized according to NATO standards. We behave very professionally”, said Corporal Aleksandra Dimevska. We met our peacekeepers in the big cin-ema hall where they have a chance to see

gether. I would certainly come here again”, said Sgt. Viktor Davodovski.“We are celebrating Easter with grill and salad together with the Minister and Chief of GS of ARM. I hardly ever cook even in my free time. Everything here is on a very high level. Everybody appreciates us and we do the same, said Corporal Bojan Bogoevski.The party wouldn’t have been complete without music. Macedonian songs sang in the middle of Kabul. There was no dancing, though, because soldiers are soldiers even after working hours, if there are working hours when on a mission in a conflict area.“They, as any other human being, need to unwind, but not completely relax so as to have impact on conducting their tasks, only to spend their free time doing different ac-tivities. Our servicemen present Macedonia

and ARM in the best possible way here in the camp with honour and dignity, as their responsibility is to maintain the image that has been built in the past years. This will be an obligation for their successors as well. We have never doubted the commitment and dedication of our servicemen in accom-plishing their duties. Their superiors from the multinational HQ speak very highly about them and the work that the Mace-donian contingent does to protect the command”, stated the head of GS of ARM, Lieutenant General Miroslav Stojanovski.Guests from all 42 countries participating in the mission in Afghanistan, 42 nations that give their contribution to the same goal- de-fense and rebuilding of this country joined in the Easter celebrations. The cooperation among all of them is not on the same level.

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“Connected to work, we closely cooperate with the USA servicemen, with the German as well as the British contingents, as a Brit­ish platoon is under the command of our company. Our company is part of the Brit­ish armed forces which secure the camp. Personally we are closes to Turks, we have the best cooperation with them. We sup­port and help each other and show that we are two fraternal nations”, stated Ma­jor Blaze Nikolovski, the commander of the Macedonian contingent.Not only Turks speak highly of the Macedo­nian servicemen, but also you can hear the same from other associates and friends.“This is a great party and I would like to thank our Macedonian friends for organiz­ing this lovely Easter party. We closely co­

operate with the Macedonian peace sup­porters in securing the ISAF command. Their commitment in protecting the HQ is crucial. I have nothing but positive experi­ence working with Macedonian service­men”, said German Col. Georg Hannen.“As a commander of the HQ security forces I can say that I am very satisfied with their professionalism, they do whatever it takes to secure the life of 2000 soldiers and civil­ians who live and work in this base. They are all professional soldiers and it is a real pleasure to work with them, I respect them and their contribution to what we are try­ing to do for the Afghan people. We are exposed to attack more than ever. The en­emy is not happy with our presence here,

area of the Afghani police and army training is highly appreciated and necessary.“It is very important to me what Mr. Wardak said about enhancing the pace of enforc-ing the capacity of the Afghan Army. This is crucial for us because two tasks should be conducted at the same time in order to have success in Afghanistan, I am referring here to the military and civilian component in building the institutions of the system, above all, the Afghan army and police whose training is supported by our training teams”, said Minister Zoran Konjanovski.After this meeting we were back to the airport. Our attempt to visit the Macedo-nian medical team in the northern town of Maymanah failed. After an hour and a half uncomfortable flight the German military transport aircraft was not able to land. The visibility was only 10 meters due to strong wind and clouds of dust. It took us another hour and a half to get back.

TURKISH COFFEE ANDA SENCERE FARWELOur last afternoon was reserved for meet-ing the Turkish representatives who give the highest marks for the Macedonian peace officers. “As a commander of the Regional Com-mand Capitol I would like to stress that any general would like to have a unit as the re-spected Macedonian Minister and Chief of GS have. I personally am proud of that unit, too. I would like to thank you for your visit to the Turkish armed forces and I would like to send the Macedonian people my sincere greetings. I hope our future cooperation will continue”, said General Levent Çolak.The Macedonian delegation was welcomed in the Turkish base with the highest military honours and the traditional Turkish dishes and the naturally, a cup of Turkish coffee.

THE CONTRUBUTION CONTINUES…The priority for Macedonia and the allies in Afghanistan is the stability of the country and the training of the Afghan police and army. This is the effort which is appreciated by the local authorities. Besides the Macedonian servicemen a lot of Macedonian workers live and work in Af-ghanistan. There are more than 200 Mace-donians in the American base Phoenix. “The working conditions are excellent, we live in a bihat, but everything is great. We feel safe in the base, I have been here for five years and so far I haven’t had a single problem”, said Aneta Nikolovska. Macedonians, regardless of whether they are soldiers or civilians, are among the na-tions that are respected and loved by the colleagues from other countries and at the same time by the locals as well. Even some of the shop assistants in the base have learned a few Macedonian words. Our servicemen have been here since 2002. Our contribution started with two of-ficers, and now there are 242 soldiers train-ing the Afghan police and army and helping the county’s defense and reconstruction. Our national delegation left very satisfied with the meetings they had and even more with the praises they heard on behalf of the Macedonian peace officers. Their big-gest satisfaction was that all Macedonian servicemen were left in good health and with a strong will to continue to represent Macedonia in the best way possible.

Nikola Krstik

but I believe that the Afghani people need us to help them establish the rule of law and lead a peaceful life. The Macedonian peace officers give a big contribution to these efforts honorably and with dignity. I haven’t had a chance to see what is go-ing on outside the base, but I know that the NATO-led coalition works on building the infrastructure; roads and schools. We’ll continue doing this”, said the US Army Lieutenant Colonel Brad Brazell. “It’s our pleasure to be with your Minister of Defense and Chief of GS in this interna-tional environment. Turkey is very satisfied with the opportunity to cooperate with your country. This example should be fol-lowed by other nations as well. The Mace-donian peace officers are very profes-

sional, committed and educated and it is a privilege to be able to work with them”, stated Col Ali Varlet from Turkey.

INSIGHT KABULWe had the first insight of Kabul the sec-ond day of our stay there. Although the security has been improved in the past few years we were not permitted to walk around the city. We were able to see how people live there from the windows of an APC Harmelin with a Macedonian flag on them.It is compulsory for anybody who leaves the base to have an interpreter, so our Af-ghani interpreter told us that there are still parts of Kabul where people don’t have drinking water. The same goes for the electricity, a large part of the houses do not have electricity at all, and those who are connected to the grid have numerous defects and blackouts. The streets are crowded with pedestrians, carts, sellers, cars and trucks even domestic animals. Even here we could notice crowded bill-boards mostly in English, aimed for the foreign workers and soldiers whose num-ber here is really ample. The signs of the local shops are written in one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, Dari and Pashto.

MACEDONIAN HELPAfter a half an hour drive we arrived for the meeting with the first man in the Afghani Ministry of Defense, Abdul Wardak. We were welcomed with the highest military honours. In our host’s opinion, Macedo-nia’s help and support, especially in the

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A DEMONSTRATED HIGH DEGREE OF READINESS AND TRAINING

MACEDONIAN FLASH 06

ational Capabilities Concept, which is used in evaluating of the real possibilities for deploying units in NATO-led international peace support missions. One of the objectives of this exercise is the evaluation of the readiness level of the Declared Mechanized Infantry Company as part of the First Mechanized Infantry Brigade to conduct different operations in peacetime and crises. The Declared Mech-anized Infantry Company is preparing to be deployed as a regular rotation contin-gent of the peacekeeping mission “ISAF” in Afghanistan sometime in July 2010. About 400 people took part in the exer-cise including servicemen from the First Mechanized Infantry Battalion, of the First

he Military exercise “Macedonian Flash - 6” was held in the period from 13 to 23 April 2010, in the Jane San-danski military barracks, in Shtip and the military training area “Penush”.

“Macedonian Flash - 6” is a live military ex-ercise with boots on the ground in order to reach its objective which was, supporting the conducting of the 18th multinational Evaluation Course OCC Level 1 (ОСС Е&F – Operational Capabilities Concept Evalu-ation & Feedback). During the evaluation, the attendees of the course evaluated the declared units while they demonstrated conducting peace support operations by following standard operational procedures of NATO and in accordance with the Oper-

Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Military Po-lice, Engineering Company and NBC Com-pany, Helicopter Detachment of the Air Force WING, logistics and other elements for combat-service support. Many people were involved in the command, including personnel from the General Staff of ARM, JOC, Logistics Command, Training Com-mand, First Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Air Force Wing, Military Police Battalion, and the NBC Company. The exercise was preceded by careful preparation and planning. The planning process was realized according to NATO standards in compliance with Planning Di-rective 75-3 Bi-SC. This process consisted of: Initial, Main Planning and Final Coordi-native conference. The planning Confer-ences were held in the “Jane Sandanski” military barracks in Shtip. Two workshops were conducted between the two plan-ning conferences by the key personnel in charge of complete completion of the planning process. In addition to the representatives from the ARM, other representatives from NATO member-countries, i.e. members of the committee for the 18 course for evalua-tion according to the OCC Level 1 from the Allied NATO Forces Command led by the Colonel Andrej Razhenko, were involved in the preparations for the exercise. All documents were written in English in compliance with the Planning Directive 75-3 Bi SC; Furthermore, English was the official working language for all par-ticipants during the planning process of the exercise. At the end of the exercise,

EXERCISE

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when the planning process was finished, the following documents were completed: EXSPEC ­ exercise specifications, EX-PLAN ­ exercise plan, OPLAN ­ operations plan, OPORD ­ operational orders, MEL/MIL ­ Main list of the events and incidents, CIMIC ­ project plans, initial press confer­ence and exercise briefing. The military exercise “Flash ­ 6” was based on a fictional scenario which is a good foundation for reaching the aims of the exercise. It was conducted in 4 phases: – first phase: individual and collective prep­

arations; – second phase: exercise planning;– third phase: conducting of the exercise;– fourth phase: evaluation and feedback.The “Macedonian Flash ­ 6” exercise sce­nario was solely designed for conducting this exercise. It was invented without an intention to represent any current or po­tential world affair, nor a planned affair. A modified map of the Republic of Macedo­nia and its neighbors was used in the sce­nario. Furthermore, real toponyms of the Republic of Macedonia were used in the scenario.

FICTIONAL SCENARIO According to the exercise scenario, all events happened in a fictional country Bogaland, which borders Eastland in the east, Southland in the south, Westland in the west, and Northland in the north. Bo­galand is divided into two provinces: Cas­uria and Mida, and their citizens are two nationalities called Casurians and Midans. With the new constitution in 1995, Boga­

tachment, Military Police, Engineers and NBC units. According to the scenario, Macedonian units will execute the mission BOGDFOR in the wider area of region “Pe-nush”. The Exercise Director was the Chief of C-3/7 from the First Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Sasho Janev, and the Chief of the Exercise Headquar-ters was Lieutenant Colonel Zlatko Rado-jchic. The main groups of the exercise which suc-cessfully coordinated all initiated activities, the bloodstream of the exercise “Mace-donian Flash – 6” were: EXCON–Exercise command, organization and realization center, EXCEN– Exercise center, in charge of the whole organization of all planned

activities of the Land Forces and Air Force, led by Major Borche Stojanovski and HI-CON – a cell in a role of a Brigade Com-mand which performed command and control functions in accordance with the received orders by EXCEN and sending them to the subordinate commands and units of the exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6” under its command. HICON was led by Lieutenant Colonel Marjan Simonovski. ACC was Air Force Company Command which realized all initiated events and inci-dents directed by EXCEN on the exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6” and it was located in Petrovec.

NATO-MULTINATIONAL EVALUATOR TRAINING COURSEThe 18th Multinational Evaluator Training course in accordance with the OCC – Op-erational Capability Concept Level 1, was held within the frameworks of the military exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6” from 9 to 23 April 2010. The training course for OCC – evaluators Level 1 was organized by NATO with the support of Macedonian Ministry of De-fense and ARM, and the activities were carried out by the First Mechanized Infan-try Brigade. The leading team or ETC 18 Staff, for prep-aration of the necessary conditions and support of the OCC-course realization con-sisted of: Course Director, Evaluator Team Director, 6 team leaders, and 3 Evaluation specialists from the Joint Forces Com-mand of NATO, service personnel for ad-ministrative support from the Macedonian

land was constituted as a country with a centralized government with limited authority on the both of the provinces’ councils. The state interests of the prov-ince of Mida increased from 1995 to 2007. The central government was not strong enough to resist the activities of Mida. The Party for Liberation of Mida was founded in July 2008 as a result of nationalism in Mida and Casurians’ dissatisfaction the state policy. Casurian minority gave re-sistance in order to get one centralized government. The leader of the Casurian “Party for Unity” requested the uniting of Bogaland without provinces. The ten-sion between the Casurian and Midan’s nationalists was growing especially in the county of Dragoevo. The crisis started

when crossing of the administrative bor-der was denied to the Casurian leader, when he wanted to visit a church in Shtip. The Leader organized a peace march in the vicinity of the administrative border on the 15 October. The ‘Party for Unity” held demonstrations along the administrative border on the 1 November 2009, when three protesters were killed. The violence escalated in the central-eastern part of the province Mida. The UNHCR announced that 150 people have disappeared and they are presumed to have been killed. This marks the beginning of the armed conflict with the Security Forces of Boga-land. While the armed conflict between the regular Security forces of Bogaland and the armed groups of Mida was esca-lating, there was ethnic cleansing mainly in the central part of the country. Due to the armed conflict, a large number of dis-placed people, i.e. civilians, were forced to leave their dwellings and to live in refugee camps or to seek asylum in the neighbor-ing countries.

MISSION “BOGDFOR” Bogaland authorities requested help from the UN for resolving the conflict. UN Secu-rity Council held a meeting and brought a resolution approving a peacekeeping mis-sion for resolving this armed conflict. The approved mission, called BOGDFOR, was led by NATO and Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries would take part in it. Macedonia took part in the BOGDFOR peacekeeping mission with one Mecha-nized Infantry Battalion, a Helicopter de-

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Ministry of Defense and the Army of the Republic of Macedonia. Lieutenant Colonel Roy Tweeter was Course Director of the 18th Evaluator Train-ing course in accordance with the OCC – Operational Capability Concept Level 1, and Andrei Rizhenko was Evaluator Team Director, both of whom are representa-tives of the NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE MCD). The 18th Evaluator Training course in ac-cordance with the OCC – Operational Ca-pability Concept Level 1 was held within the preparation phase for the military Ex-ercise “Macedonian Flash -6” from 13 to 18 of April, 2010, in the “Jane Sandanski” military barracks in Shtip. The ETC 18 Staff had working meetings with “Macedonian Flash - 6 Staff, and they familiarized them-selves with the exercise area “Penush”, a place where the exercise took place. They also learned about the climate, local in-habitants, and organization of protection forces, exercise scenario, the main event list and the main incident list. They met the troops which were evaluated as well as saw the places and areas which were planned to be used as ground for exercise evaluation. The aim of the 18th Evaluator Training course was training of evaluators in accor-dance with the OCC – Operational Capa-bility Concept Level. Despite Macedonian Army Service Personnel, 10 Partnership for Peace countries (PfP), together with 22 NATO participants participated in the Evaluator Training course. The Army of the Republic of Macedonia took part in the

military barracks in Shtip. The exercise was officially opened by the First Mechanized Infantry Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Dimche Petkovski. In his speech in front of the participants of the exercise, he emphasized that they are expected to reaffirm their success on this extremely significant military exercise which derives from their skilled training, professionalism, and gained experience by participating in NATO - led missions. Brigadier General Petrovski also said that the military exer-cise: “Macedonian Flash - 6” was a good opportunity to evaluate the operational ca-pabilities of the First Mechanized Infantry Brigade and their real abilities to success-fully serve in the upcoming ISAF mission in Afghanistan in July 2010. General Petro-vski recommended that the servicemen should do their best in fulfilling their every day duties, disregarding the pressure that they are observed and evaluated. “Leave the evaluation to the evaluators because good results come from good work”, said Brigadier General Dimche Petrovski. Lieutenant Colonel Sasho Janev in his speech said that the military exercise “Macedonian Flash - 6” was an excel-lent opportunity to present and affirm the readiness of the ARM in conducting a practical form of training in compliance with NATO standards, in front of 10 armies from NATO and PfP countries. The Course Director of the 18th Training Evaluator Course in accordance with OCC Level 1, Lieutenant Colonel Roy Tweeter expressed his satisfaction with the current course of the exercise, sincerely wishing it continues in order to be successfully com-pleted.

INTER-OPERABILITY CHECKED According to the exercise plan, the course participants did a formal NATO evaluation Level 1 in the training area of the military barracks in Shtip, from 20 to 22 April, 2010. The aim of this evaluation was to check the interoperability of the units in ac-cordance with the OCC – Operational Ca-pability Concept. The units were evaluated in 10 situations and 35 incidents during the evaluating process. They were evaluated in the following situations: work on receiv-ing and issuing operational orders, setting a mobile and fixed control point, secur-ing a base, working on observation post, deploying quick reaction forces by air and deploying quick reaction forces by land, search and rescue coordinated operations, securing and escorting a convoy. This was the beginning of the 18th Evalu-ator Training Course in accordance with the OCC – Operational Capability Concept Level 1, used by the NATO Alliance for eval-uating operational capabilities, interoper-ability, as well as practical implementation of NATO standards in the training of the declared units while preparing for interna-tional peacekeeping missions. When dealing with the designated situ-ations in practice, the units used NATO standard operational procedures which are determined for these kinds of situa-tions. The NATO evaluating teams moni-tored their work at all times. The evaluation was done according to the List of situations and the List of incidents in different place and at different time. All planned combat operations and peace-

Course with 14 participants and 3 evalua-tion instructors. .ОСС Е&F – Operational Capabilities Con-cept Evaluation & Feedback – is a NATO tool for evaluating PfP countries and their declared units in the OCC NATO group of forces. The OCC program consists of two levels of evaluation, Level 1 and 2.ARM started with activities within OCC in 2006. It all started with preparation and conducting of the evaluation which is of national responsibility, as well as providing support to NATO led evaluations. In order to implement the evaluation in ac-cordance with the OCC program, a certain number of evaluators is needed; therefore, in May 2008, during the military exercise “Macedonian Flash - 6” a National Evalua-tor Training course was held in compliance with OCC program Level 1. Furthermore, in the military exercise “Macedonian Flash - 6” in October 2008, the 14th Evaluator Training course was held in accordance with OCC Level 1. Service personnel from ARM and representatives from 24 PfP and NATO countries participated in that course with a total of 70 participants. By organizing and realizing the OCC - courses provide an opportunity offered to train a big number of OCC - evaluators from PfP countries as well as NATO coun-tries by implementing the OCC E&F meth-odology.

CURRENT SUCCESS CONFIRMED On the 19 April 2010, after deploying the units, the military exercise “Macedonian Flash - 6” was officially opened in the

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keeping operations were conducted ac­cording to the lists. The units’ high level of combat readiness and capabilities of the participants to face the challenges of an international peacekeeping mission were clearly demonstrated. The declared units of the ARM used the experience they have gained by participat­ing in international military exercises and international peacekeeping missions when dealing with the designated situations and incidents. The process of evaluation Level 1 of the units in the military exercise “Macedo­nian Flash – 6” and the 18th Multinational Evaluator Training Course ended in the morning of the 23 April, 2010, when the exercise leaders’ team issued the last frag­mental order. When NATO evaluation Level 1 and Mili­tary exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6” fin­ished, the participants were awarded a certificate and an emblem for completed evaluator course according to the OCC E&F program. The participants can use this certificate in their careers in order to be evaluators to other units of NATO and PfP armies, declared in the NATO pool of forces.The evaluation was done according to the List of situations and the List of inci­dents in different place and at different time. All planned combat operations and peacekeeping operations were conducted by the participant – evaluators of the 18th Evaluator Training Course from 10 armies of NATO and PfP countries organized in six teams. Using the evaluation Level 1 in the military exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6”, is the best way to demonstrate the capability of the units to execute practical forms of training according to NATO stan­dards to Macedonian and international community. Two servicemen from the armies of the PfP countries were observ­ers at the military exercise “Macedonian Flash ­6”.

HUMANITY IN ACTION In order to get civilian support in the exer­cise activities, representatives of the civil­ian institutions were contacted before the beginning of the exercise. A CIMIC project was completed during the military exercise “Macedonian Flash ­6”. The project was a humanitarian action for donating food to the Children’s Special Institution for edu­cation and rehabilitation “ISKRA” in Shtip, where children, from Shtip and neighbor­ing municipalities, with special needs stay and go to school. By completing the CIMIC project, the par­ticipants of the exercise proved their hu­manity in action and demonstrated their readiness to help Macedonian citizens in need, which is one of the important seg­ments of their mission.Within the exercise, the White Cell func­tioned as a coordinator of the exercise activities and representatives of the civil­ian institutions which were involved in the exercise. During the exercise, the exercise lead­ing team and the participants of the 18th Evaluator Training Course in accordance with OCC Level 1 were welcomed, accom­modated and escorted. In coordination with the CIMIC cell, the representatives of the armies from NATO and PFP countries

tinuous media coverage of the exercise in order to be transparent. PCI also prepared and organized a reception of the state and local media who visited the exercise. The center made a plan for media cover-age according to the dynamics of the ex-ercise activities, conducting briefings and other activities with the media, in order to present the aims and content of the exer-cise. It also followed, processed, analyzed and evaluated the information connected to the exercise which was announced or published in the media. It analyzed the in-fluence it had on the exercise participants, on the ARM. The PIC issued a bulletin with information about the exercise which was distributed among the participants of the exercise. The Public Information Center

was situated in the operational center in the military barracks “Jane Sandanski” in Shtip. The military exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6” was successfully completed on the 23 April, 2010. The participants of the exercise demonstrated a high level of interoperability and skills in conducting activities and procedures when accom-plishing peacekeeping missions. This was another chance to demonstrate the readi-ness and capability of ARM for admission in the Euro-Atlantic Defense Institutions to the Macedonian and the international community.

Zoran Janakievski

were taken for a sightseeing tour in Shtip and Ohrid.

CONTINUOUS AND TIMELY INFORMATION A Public Information Center was created with a basic aim to provide the public with continuous and timely information about the activities and the importance of the military exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6”. The Chief of the Public Information Center was the spokesperson of the ARM Gener-al Staff, Lieutenant Colonel Mirche Gjogos-ki. In compliance with the exercise plan and set NATO procedures concerning the conducting of an exercise of this kind, the Public Information Center was completely subordinate to the Exercise Director. PIC

was a professional team in use of the Ex-ercise Director in order to plan and orga-nize the process of informing of the public and service personnel of the ARM about the exercise, as well as to document the exercise activities. In order to inform the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia about the affirmation of the ARM and the level of training of its service personnel, the Public Information Center implement-ed the proactive policy of informing. All information, announcements and photos from the military exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6” are displayed on the official web-page of Ministry of Defense of Republic of Macedonia. During the military exercise “Macedonian Flash – 6” PIC provided con-

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WITH THE ARM ARTILLERISTS

STATIONARY CAMPING

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Colonel Metodija Velichkovski, representa-tives of the General Staff of ARM and bat-talion commanderss from the Brigades. This live artillery shooting with competitive character will become a tradition of JOC and will be conducted every year, and the unit that will be declared the best twice consecutively will keep the flag perma-nently.

PROGRAM ARTILERY SHOOTINGAlong with these activities, SHAB also realized their planned tactical exercises in the framework of which the combat bat-teries of the unit conducted live artillery program shooting. On 11 April the artillery platoon BM21 “GRAD” conducted live ammunition shoot-ing with field gun 76 mm B1 applying all the possible ways of preparations of the initial elements and adjustments while conducting indirect live artillery shooting. On 13 April 1-st SHAB conducted program shooting number 20 with 120 mm howit-zer applying the ATLAS system in full, and the results were outstanding. The battal-ion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Zarko Risteski evaluated it with grade “above standard”. On 14 April the artillery platoon BM21 “GRAD conducted tactical exercise and conducted program shooting number 20 with 128 mm multiple rocket launcher. They demonstrated a high level of practice and training, and the teams of forward observers and the fire directing center demonstrated amazing speed and skill in adjusting and evaluating the target ele-ments. This activity was also evaluated by the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Zarko Risteski with grade “above standard”. Although during the carrying out of all ac-tivities of the 10-day stationary camping the unit was faced with certain logistics difficulties, yet, with great efforts of the unit members, they managed to remove all technical and vehicle malfunctions on the spot and complete all the assign-ments as planned and on time. At the end of the analysis of these ac-tivities made by the commander and the command of the unit a great satisfaction was expressed on the successful camping and they concluded that this unit can and must achieve even better results in the future.

rom 06 until 15 April the Self-Pro-pelled Howitzer Artillery Battalion (SHAB) under the command of Lieu-tenant Colonel Zarko Risteski con-

ducted stationary camping at the training area “Krivolak”. A number of educational and exercise activities were conducted by the Command and the Battalion units. From 06 till 08 April there was an artillery seminar organized by the GS of ARM with support of SHAB, with officers from all the ARM artillery units. The goal of the semi-nar was to promote the new artillery rules: Artillery rule for shooting and a Manual for firing positions. A number of artillery officers from the op-eration units, as from the Military Acad-emy were involved in the creation of these rules, who in a short period of time have managed to create quality rules using spe-cialized literature from the modern NATO armies. During the seminar several artillery live shooting exercises were conducted by the First Howitzer Battery from the Artillery Battalion and by one Mortar Battery from the Second Mechanized Infantry Brigade where the new rules were applied.

“IN COMBAT” TO WIN THE FLAG On 09 and 10 April tactical exercises were conducted with live artillery shooting by the artillery units from the Joint Operation-al Command. Four mortar batteries from the First and Second MIB, and the First Howitzer Battery from SHAB participated in these shooting exercises. The shooting was evaluated by the JOC Commander, Major General Zoran Dimov with its own board whose members were the Commander of SHAB, Lieutenant Colonel Zarko Risteski and the firing sup-port officer from JOC, Major Mate Zura. The artillery units achieved outstanding score, and the best score had the mortar battery from the Second Battalion of the First MIB. The commander of the best unit was presented with the flag by the JOC Deputy Commander, Brigadier General Kiro Galazovski in front of all of the artil-lery units. The shooting was attended by the Deputy Chief of GS of ARM, Major General Naser Sejdini, the JOC Commander, Brigadier General Kiro Galazovski, the Commander of First MIB, Brigadier General Dimce Petrovski, the Commander of Second MIB, BY Goran Risteski

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young trees were planted, 80, 000 of white pine and 20,000 of cypress. We had a joint initiative to-day and a good collaboration with the Mayor of Pustec, the Republic of Albania. We would like this ac-tion to become international, to spread not only to Albania, but also to other countries as well in order to make the Balkans greener and more beautiful for living for the next generations”In this year’s action “Day of the Tree”-Plant Your Future”, in the boundary region between Resen, the Republic of Macedonia and Mala Prespa, the Republic of Al-bania thirty pupils from both coun-tries participated for the first time and in a symbolic way with a mutu-al tree planting (ours in Albania and Macedonians from neighboring Albania in our country), along with the citizens from both countries, they planted their future.The Deputy Minister of Defense, Mr. Emil Dimitriev participated in the forestation of the municipal-ity of Probishtip in the area called “Zad Kostomar”, and the State Secretary in the Ministry of De-fense, Mr. Petar Esmerov planted a tree in the location called “Korija nad Vodna Skala”.

ACTIVE CONTRIBUTION OF THE ARM MEMBERS In the action “Day of the Tree”-Plant Your Future”, 250 ARM sol-diers participated actively from five ARM garrisons who planted

he action “Day of the Tree”-Plant Your Future” which had a Balkan character was orga-nized for the fifth time on 30 March. The citizens planted

about 7.5 million saplings at about a hundred locations all over the country.On the day of the action, the Min-ister of Defense, Mr. Zoran Kon-janovski, visited the area of Resen where together with the Mayor of Resen, Mr. Mihail Volkanovski and the Mayor of Pustec, the Republic of Albania, in the place “Slivnica” “planted their future” along with young Macedonians from neigh-boring Albania.“Today’s action which is support-ed by the Mayors of Resen and Pustec, R.Albania, in a way means a holiday for the Republic of Mace-donia. This action was started five years ago and today it is already becoming a nation-wide holiday-a day of ecological victory, when all of us are involved with the aim of planting our future. It is really a pleasure to see how children from the neighboring municipalities of both neighboring countries are planting their future together. All of us will feel the benefit from this action in fifteen years when these planted trees will give the oxygen which is necessary for our lives”, said the Minister of Defense, Mr. Zoran Konjanovski.The Mayor of municipality of Pus-tec, the Republic of Albania, Mr. Ed-mond Temelko, pointing out that

the Republic of Macedonia is an ex-ample of realization of this ecologi-cal action not only in the Balkans, but also wider, stated, “It is a great pleasure for me to participate in this action. This action is very popu-lar in the Republic of Macedonia. This year, for the first time, we, the Macedonians who live in the Re-public of Albania are the promoters of the action in our country. This is the first time in the municipality of Pustec and in the Republic of Alba-nia that such a thing takes place, all the citizens-residents of our mu-nicipality to go out massively in an organized way, the entire adminis-tration along with the pupils and their teachers. This is a good sign that this action will be spread to other municipalities in our country. This action is more than necessary in the Republic of Albania because our forests are more damaged than the forests in the Republic of Macedonia”.Stressing the pleasure from the successful realization of the ac-tion, the Mayor of Resen, Mr.Mihail Volkanovski, said, “The response of the Resen citizens for today’s action is great. Traditionally, ev-ery year there is forestation of the bare terrain in the area of the municipality. We have supported these actions for years and we will support them in the future with an aim to make Prespa even more beautiful. In this action, at the two locations, the village of Slivnica and the village of Ljubojno 100,000

30,000 saplings of evergreen trees at five locations in areas of Sko­pje, Kumanovo, Shtip, Veles and Sveti Nikole. Traditionally, the army planted the greatest part of the planned number of saplings. “The Army of the Republic of Macedo­nia has always given and will give a contribution in enriching the green fund of our country”, said LTC Mirce Gjorgoski, the spokesperson of the General Staff of the ARM. Apart from Macedonia, decorative, de­ciduous and evergreen trees were planted at the boundaries by the members of the Border Police and the Customs Managements in the Republic of Macedonia and the neighboring countries.

Elizabeta Tashkovska

Action “Day of the Tree” - Plant Your Future”

DAY OF ECOLOGICAL VICTORY

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he execution of activities by the Army of Republic of Macedonia in international missions in all parts of the world is one of its basic mis-

sions. We have presented the rocky and insecure terrain of the Middle East Afghanistan, the far Iraq, culturally differ-ent Lebanon and near Bosnia, where our teams, among other things, take care of what is most sacred for any human be-ing – its health. And, the fact that has been constantly mentioned throughout all our issues is the opinion of the foreign officers about our peacekeepers that has been always described as pure and instantly recognizable professionalism, full dedication and loyalty, and absolute

FROM THE PEACEKEEPER’S JOURNAL

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execution of every given assignment. In this issue, those attributes can be related with the work of our Predrag and Darko Kocovski, twin brothers that proudly represented the Macedonian sun in the “ALTHEA” mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

ALWAYS TOGETHER Following the established bon ton, ad­vantage is given to the seniors. Thus, we will first interview the five minute older Captain Predrag KOCOVSKI. We asked Captain Kocovski if his life path is always merged with the one of his brother. “We have been together almost always and everywhere. We go everywhere togeth­

er, although I don’t know if that is typical for twins. After we graduated from high school we both enrolled at the Faculty of Law in Skopje at the same time, and we also graduated with the same last exam”, he began explaining. In analogy from what we hear, we assume that the service in our Army for both of them has begun at the same time. Of course, our assumption was entirely true. “After the studies we waited for one year being un­employed, and then we saw the public ad for enlisting officers in the service of ARM and we applied. A week before the course started, we began serving our mandatory conscript service, because after the graduation there was no ex­

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1. CAPTAIN PREDRAG KOCHOVSKI

2. CAPTAIN DARKO KOCHOVSKI

3. MEDAL AWARDING CEREMONY AT THE ALTHEA Hq IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

4. PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE MACEDONIAN PEACE OFFICERS SERVING IN ALTHEA KILLED IN THE HELICOP-TER ACCIDENT

cuse to prolong that. We started in the Reserve Officers School in Skopje in the military barracks “Goce Delcev”, and as I said, after a week, our mandatory conscript service was terminated and we started with the Officers Course for the service in ARM. We were actually part of the course members, studying for the legal service. Several months after finishing the course we started to work, appointed to G-1 of GS of ARM”, Captain Predrag Ko-covski told us about their begin-nings, speaking at the same time about his brother, Darko. Cap-tain Darko KoCovsKi also had something to add: “My brother already said everything that was happening before serving in Army of Republic of Macedonia. We both started serving in 2004 with a Lieutenant rank, because the laws were different then, and in July 2007 we were both pro-moted to Captains. In that period we were only separated when he left for a mission in Bosnia, and then half a year more while I was there, that means that we were separated a year and a half, not counting the week when we were together for duty transfer and vacation”.

THE RoAD To “ALTHEA” About his work experience in ARM, Captain Predrag explained that he has been part of almost every department in G-1 of the General Staff of ARM. “I can say that so far in G-1 in of GS I have worked in almost every depart-ment, thus most of the work done from professional nature and personal management in the GS is familiar to me. I have worked as an officer for profes-sional qualification and progress in G-1, in the country and abroad, then as an officer for personal management for noncommis-sioned officers, after that some time also in the personal man-agement for officers, and at the moment I am working as an offi-cer for legal matters in the Legal Department within G-1. Here, in the Legal department in G-1, to-gether with my brother, we have been for almost six months”. Regarding the involvement in the EUFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, “ALTHEA”, Captain Predrag was the first one to be a part of it. He left for Bosnia in 2008, while his brother a year later. “I was the first to go in mission in Bosnia in June 2008 and I stayed there for two rota-tions, until June 2009, when I returned back. The position I had there was a legal advisor in the

responsible. We are still in charge of that place”, explained Captain Predrag. Having into consideration that he was replaced by his twin brother, we asked him if there were there any interesting experiences re-lated to it. “There are a lot of in-teresting things that happened. Especially interesting is when I notified my superiors in the com-mand that I will be replaced by my brother in the next rotation, and even more interesting when they found out that he is my twin brother. We were joking that no one will be shocked because the replacement is more or less like me. At the actual duty transfer at which all members of the com-mand and the headquarters of EUFOR were present, the com-mander, member of the Italian army, said: “Here comes one more from the Kocovski clan, who is the same as the one leav-ing, so it wouldn’t come as a big shock to us because we will not be visually surprised. Captain Darko continued: “It was interesting during the duty trans-fer. I remember that once, the EU-FOR deputy commandant Gener-al Carrasco, who was a part of the Spanish Army, met us together in the command and was stunned. My brother presented me as his successor, and he replied – “you are the same!” My brother ex-plained that I am his twin brother, and the General asked who will come after me, and I replied that we have another twin brother at home waiting his turn. However, while I was there two command-ers rotated, the first was from the Spanish army, and the sec-ond from the Italian army, Gen-eral Major Stefano Castagnotto, who was in charge of the EUFOR when I left”.

IMPRESSION FROM BOSNIA Nevertheless, their greatest im-pression from the one-year, that

command of the “ALTHEA” mis-sion. The rotation for my position there was one year, but our legal duties stated that one rotation is six months, so I stayed two ro-tations. My position was under the command of the Austrian unit, and beside this position, ARM has one headquarter duty for a noncommissioned officer as a medical administrator. Of course, it is well known that we have another medical team there that as a logistic support of the entire personnel in the “Butmir” base, as well as the personnel that is found at the moment in the zone for which our team is

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is, the six month period in mission, was the way everyone involved in the mission dealt with their work. “It is important to say is that we have our maximum efforts in doing our job professionally because there we are working 24/7, and when-ever necessary we were engaged in any activity from the field of responsibility of the Legal Advisor and the Office of the Legal Advisor. It was interesting that we met a lot of people and different charac-ters, so I can conclude that while I was a part of that mission, that one year, we worked with professionals, who did their with the utmost professionalism. It was evident that the members of the ARM contingent had reached that level, they even stood our according to their level of professionalism in comparison to the others”, explained Captain Predrag. His brother, Captain Darko Kocovski, who was part of the “ALTHEA” mission on the same position from June until December 2009, shares this opinion. “My brother was right about what was going on in Sarajevo while we were on the mission. We think alike, I feel the same way about the professionalism we found in Sara-jevo. I have a lot of positive feelings, in general, about the entire situation there. It is very interesting that all the officers respect you regardless of whether they are generals or captains. As long as you do your job professionally, they are open and accept your criticism and, of course, they appreciate your work. Moreover, I would like to explain, that people who worked in the HQ came different parts of Europe, and there were even people from Chile, although they weren’t part of the EU command, they all had great personalities and they were excellent at their work”, Captain Darko added.

PRICELESS EXPERIENCE Each contribution of the ARM members in some of the international missions is a big experience for them, and for the Army of Republic of Macedonia as a whole. We asked our interviewees to give us their opinion on that. “Regarding the experiences from the mission, I can say that they are priceless to us as an army that is not an EU or NATO member. I must point out that they make no dif-ference about that and simply appreciate

aware, the cases in question are urgent cases, emergencies, like for example, a legal analysis that the commander needs as soon as possible because based on that analysis he should reach a certain decision in the area of mission respon-sibilities, which is of great importance. What we did there as a contingent was and still is highly appreciated”, his broth-er, Captain Predrag added.

THE CONNECTION OF THE TWINS - MYTH OR TRUTH? Since we had identical twins in front of us, we had to ask if all those myths we have heard about twins and their psychic connection were true. On that, Predrag said: “Well, there are stereotypes and speculations that the twins can commu-nicate when separated, that one feels what the other is feeling. I can say that that is not the case with us. Anyway, we are preoccupied with work, our day flies by. While I was in Bosnia, I returned sev-eral times from the mission, I had a va-cation, and I returned between rotations (due to some procedural issues), so time goes by so fast that I didn’t even feel the absence, as if I wasn’t separated from my brother, with whom I have been all of my life”, said Predrag. But in their personal life, the connec-tion is evident. Namely, they are family men, with wives. They got married on the same day. They both have daughters only three months apart, for which they say that they “missed”. The Army of the Republic of Macedonia has members that are fully dedicated to their improvement. An example of this are the Kocovski brothers who are cur-rently studying for their masters. “We definitely see our career development in the legal service in the ARM. At the mo-ment we are studying for our masters studies and we finish those responsibili-ties regularly and on time as well, in addi-tion to the work-related obligations, and we do not neglect them on account of our studies”, Captain Predrag said. Our interviewees in this issue are an ex-cellent example demonstrating that the ARM has professionals, people that are utterly committed to their service in all its elements.

Zdravko Rizovski/Ivan Petrushevski

the work we do. With respect to wheth­er we can use that experience from the mission, I can say that we cannot when it comes to our everyday job as lawyers. Nevertheless we can contribute by intro­ducing the contingents to the way the missions function, especially regarding the mission in Bosnia, so that they can easily fit in that system. After all, it is a system that has its own rules and regu­lations and knowing them makes the work easier for those who are part of that system”, underlined Captain Darko. “We are willing to share all of the knowl­edge that we have gained or will gain as part of the legal service, and by do­ing that we want to contribute to the development of the entire Army, espe­

cially through the experiences gained in mission, working for multinational forces. However, I have to distinguish the work done here in the legal service and the work there as a legal adviser. There we face different legislation in the area of peace and humanitarian law and the armed conflict law, and at the same time the interpretation of the local laws of the country which is in the area of re­sponsibility of the mission. An alleviating circumstance for us was the fact that we know the local language and that enabled us to contribute in the interpre­tation of the legal regulations that had a big influence in the mission itself. That was appreciated by everyone. As you are

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BOMB DEACTIVATION

ANTI-DIVERSIONARY PROTECTION echnical protection refers to anti-diversionary protection which is achieved through application of technical assets for complete pro-

tection of facilities significant for defence of the country and for the lives of the mili-tary and other persons.Facilities significant for defence of the country (hereinafter: facilities) refer to the facilities determined by a separate article of the Rulebook for basic criteria for de-termining military and other facilities of significant meaning for the defence of the country and compulsory measures for their protection. Technical protection is а composite part of securing facilities and people and it is achieved through the application of various variable systems which repre-sent combinations of different mechani-cal, electro-mechanical, electronic, opto-electronic and chemical assets and their components, built-in or set up for timely detection and preventing the endanger-ment of facilities and people’s lives. The models and number of the technical assets that comprise the system depend on importance, application, type and loca-tion being protected and which is deter-mined by a project for each facility sepa-rately, and the responsible officer decides on the application and realization.Anti-diversionary protection is organized for the purpose of detecting and pre-venting sabotage of military facilities and property and of people’s lives, as well as for determining the functionality of the devices and installations in the facilities

that are being protected. Anti-diversion-ary protection is achieved through appli-cation of technical assets, methods, mea-sures and procedures for the purpose of detecting planted sabotage devices and dangerous substances and their deac-tivation and neutralization. The assets used in detecting and destroying explo-sive devices can be x-ray devices, explo-sives detectors, robots, water cannons and other.

WATER CANNONDuring WWII the Germans dropped all kinds of bombs at the British. To this effect the British formed units respon-sible for the non-activated grenades and bombs, so they started using a disarm-ing device. They put 50 fits of explosive; at the front they put a piece of metal in

the shape of a rectangular bulb. Then a fuse bomb was made. In the 50s it was no longer used because the heat and the blast set off the devices. They invented devices called dinosaurs, with handles which activated the packages. New water cannons – destroyers appeared, and then even newer cannons with lasers that use clay in place of water, which are especially used for opening the big packages. Water cannons are intended to open the packages, i.e. to deactivate the device. If the battery is found, it is shot at to be destroyed and that action deactivates the device. The water cannon can throw 100 to 600 liters of water per second; the faster it throws water the better it is for opening the package. If it operates on nitroglycerin, it will activate the device in 900 – 1000 fits per second. Appropriate estimates must be made to decide on the power of the shot at the package. If it is a cardboard box we shoot with small jets of water, and if it is a met-al box we should shoot with stronger jets (but this can set off the device). When it is a container and we register the source of energy with the help of an x-ray, we aim at the battery and destroy it. If we do not know what is inside, but we have an x-ray device, it will help us to aim at the source of energy and not hit the explosive, but if there is a time-device (timer) we set up the cannon, withdraw and activate it. When we do not know what is inside, but we suspect that the device operates on nitroglycerine, we aim at the centre. There are devices that have been made in

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the cable and tear it which causes the contact to be interrupted, but interruption in the connec-tion can happen with those that are remotely–controlled if the signal with the robot is lost, so it will not be able to return and fin-ish the task. Robots can perform many tasks. The more cameras are placed on the robot the bet-ter, but it is the best to have one person in control of the robot. It can pick up very heavy objects, but this also depends on the weight of the robot. Heavier robots pick up heavier objects. When the big robot of 300 kg is used, camera 2 is used, which is positioned in the direction of the robot’s movement. This robot is called “pointer” and it also has tracks. Water cannon can also be installed on the robot. The small robot has wheels.

ACCESS TO THE EXPLOSIVESIf we have access to the explosive device then we can open it in sev-eral ways. If we have commercial explosive, using the devices we have we will set off the explosive. Terrorists usually use plastic explo-sive which is quite insensitive.The box is surrounded with а deto-nating fuse, a detonating cap with slow-burning fuse is placed at the end, it is tightened with self-adhe-sive tape to keep the detonating fuse at the ends of the box. Then the detonating cap is activated to open the upper lid and part of the box to be able to see what is in-side. Cardboard with detonating fuse is placed on the upper part of the case, it is fastened with self-adhesive tape, the slow-burning fuse with the cap is added and it is activated to open the upper part of the case. The detonating double fuse is placed close to the dial of the case, it is fastened with self-adhesive tape and the detonating cap with slow-burning fuse is placed on the end and it is activated to open the upper part. On the upper part of the briefcase, next to the numbers, two detonat-ing caps are placed; they are at-

the past, for example, 3­inch pipes which serve as charges for water cannons with antifreeze, they look like a bullet, they are disposable, found in small and big sizes, and they reach the speed of 300 mps and are activated by a button. There are smaller and bigger car­tridges with gunpowder charges. With 80 inches charge water can be thrown out at the speed of 300 mps.

LETTER-BOMBSWhen dealing with letter­bombs we take the destroyer, the letter is kept in a lying position and at a dis­tance of 1 cm; one inch is shot (2, 5 m/s) to open just one side. The cannon’s pipe should always be aimed at the target, and one must never stand behind it since there are returning waves. In its proxim­ity, behind it there should be only one person but it is obligatory for that person to be sheltered. In case the device displaces or falls, it should be opened remotely, to check whether the battery has fallen. If the battery is lowered, it is lifted and set, the button is pressed, and it is checked with a knife and observed whether the ar­row will move.First, x­raying is performed, the x­ray device is set opposite the device, then the tape, with a pre­viously set roll of film, is placed at a distance of 1 m, impulses are adjusted according to the device (for example, for a cardboard box it is adjusted to 15 impulses), it is photographed, after that the tape is given for development, the roll is taken out, the position of the battery is located, the package is marked and taken outside to the place of destruction. Then, the cannon is prepared, the 300 m/s cartridge (bullet) is placed in the pipe, the lid is turned from above, water is filled and it is closed with a rubber plug (which is packed to­gether with the cartridge), the pipe is placed on a tripod stand and it is carried to the device, it is aimed at the device (the battery), the wires of the cannon are attached and then we withdraw, and with a remote control device, which is connected to the wires, we check the potentiometer by pressing the black button, then the red button, which is held (pressed) while the other switch is pulled, at first back­wards, after that forwards and the water cannon is activated.Where can the robot be applied after the purchase, since they are slow and extremely heavy, and also limited by their weight al­though there are robots with dif­ferent weights (for example, 70 kg and 300 kg). There are cable–controlled robots and there are remotely–controlled robots, but when using those with a cable, the robot might get tangled up in

tached to a detonating fuse and to a slow-burning fuse cap and activated to open.When dealing with letter-bombs we should have in mind the set-ting of the height of the detonat-ing fuse in accordance with the let-ter. When the fuse activates, the letters also activate. For a metal box a piece of booster is used, placed through the stron-gest part of the detonating fuse, the slow-burning fuse is lit and ac-tivated to open the box. For a so-called pipe bomb a metal plate is taken along with Styro-foam (polystyrene) and placed at the end of the pipe, empty space is left in the Styrofoam for the cap with the slow-burning fuse, and it is activated to open the pipe on one side. The pipe can also be opened if on one end we wind the detonating fuse which is fastened with a self-adhesive tape and a slow-burning fuse cap is added and it is activat-ed to open the pipe.

OPENING OF A PACKAGE BARE-HANDED This is the most dangerous way of opening a package although there were instances in Korea and Spain when the operator – tech-nician disposed the explosive de-vice bare-handed. However, the package should first be x-rayed to check whether the explosive de-vice has a fuse which could react to shock, i.e. movement, and if it is determined that it is not that type it can be touched by hands.The package is fastened with ny-lon self-adhesive tape in order to be tight, it is slowly soaked in wa-ter on the sides and then slowly the paper is torn to make a certain opening. The paper next to the opening is removed by the aid of water. When the paper is removed white self-adhesive tape is placed over the opening to make it tighter and not allow it to widen. A spe-cial scalpel is used to cut the alu-minum and cardboard box layer by layer. If only x-ray is used with the package, we will be able to see the batteries, the fuses, the explosive, cups and wires ending nowhere, but we would not be able to see the aluminum paper (foil) which is the extension of the wires and serves as a conductor. Thus, be-side the obligatory x-ray, in some instances we have to do part of the job by hands. If it is a plastic box, openings are carefully made on the sides but, assuring that the mixture does not drip on the wires. If it is a wooden box it is cut on the edges or if it is a metal box it is cut with a hacksaw and light is placed on one side to be able to observe the inside content from the other side.

Radoje Stojcheski

3. AND 4. OPENING AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE WITH WATER CANNON

1. ROBOT WITH WATER CANNON

2. X-RAY DEVICE

OUNTAIN TERRAIN AND THE INFLUENCE ON OPERATIONSThe mountain terrain distinguishes greatly from the steep glens and val-leys in vast areas. The weather con-

ditions can also significantly vary in one smaller area. The mountain terrain can also include urban areas and valleys between mountain ridges, hills, and the mountains themselves. Which are important military characteristics in the mountain areas? The big differences in the terrain height pro-vide excellent positions for observing or can fully conceal great land fields. The structure of the terrain usually has one characteristic look with road and railway net-work that follows the flow of the rivers and other watercourses. This has great influence on the maneuver since most of the forces will be forced to act in accordance with the structure (appearance) of the ground. The road network will be limited and the movement through the woodlands, val-leys and through other topographic char-acteristics in the higher areas will often be extremely difficult or impossible. A lot of mountain areas are afforested, especially the lower valleys. The mountain terrain limits the use and reduces the action effects of the modern combat technique. Due to the impassability away from the roads, the lack of farmland and water, it is usually poorly populated, thus making the operation complicated. Combat actions, specially hostile, are channeled on the routes, valleys and mostly in the course of the mountain rivers, with little possibilities for interaction among the forces oriented to other directions. Maneuver preparation, es-pecially hostile, is made very difficult.

The regrouping of the forces after the front is very difficult, often impossible. The initial grouping has determinative meaning on the operation outcome. The reserves are in prin-ciple stronger and organized in groups. The activity of the primary forces is often in the valleys, in length and through the ridges. To speed up the activity and transfer the com-bat zone, the forces will often be brought in from the rear. The success of the mountain operations is usually achieved by units which have gained control on the main terrain as are the moun-tains and the ridges, valleys, canyons and roads. Some of these will have a canalizing effect and can be controlled by units located on high ground that dominate above them. Therefore, the battle for the mountain peaks will be the main factor that governs the course of the operation in mountain environ-

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THE INFLUENCE OF THE MILITARY GEOGRAPHY ON OPERATIONS – IION THE TERRAIN, WEATHER CONDITIONS…

The mountain terrain affects the operations, especially in the use of the armored, mecha-nized and artillery missile structures. The ac-tion is directed on small amount of roads, passable ridges, valleys and hills, which are more or less separated from each other. Movement and gathering of the units is made difficult, as well as the progress and grouping for combat. Thus, in the time es-timated for gathering and progress of the units, the following elements are also taken into consideration: the distance of the units from the area, the type of the unit, the prop-erties of the ground and the number and advantages of the directions. In the course of the operation the units will conduct combat activities on greater dis-tances, separated courses, individually and with a deeper combat establishment, usu-ally with no direct fire connection.

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ment. Due to the restricted mobility of the ground vehicles, the use of helicopters is of vital importance for reconnaissance, resup-plying products and evacuation. Infiltration in enemy lines and in its background is used on the mountain ground. The defence is in divided resistance points of smaller groups that enables, (especially nighttime), to penetrate the resistance points of the enemy background, and thus, using the attack of the main forces of the front, to destroy the enemy defense system from within.

SPECIFICS OF THE OPERATIONS IN AFFORESTED AREAS The tempo of the operations in forests is significantly slowed down. The observation zones and those protected by fire support are limited and thus the battles are often conducted with short range weapons. The trees provide camouflage thus increasing the possibility for surprise. Also, the problem of commanding and control is increased on every level that is further worsened by the reduction of radio signals. This can call for decentralization of command and increase of the signals. The forests reduce the effectiveness of fire power. Because of observation problems and determination of objective, the long range weapons lose a lot of its advantages. The weapons that the soldiers can carry are extremely significant and when the ob-jectives come into sight, it is crucial to act fast and accordingly. The high trajectory of the mortars makes them suitable for opera-

tions in afforested areas because they can be used from any small open field. The effectiveness of the conventional highly explosive ammunition against the unpro-tected people is increased by the effect of spattering into fragments and with the ex-plosions in the tree branches. The restricted vision has a psychological ef-fect on the troops deployed in forests op-erations for a longer period of time. There will be very little opportunities for massive use of the armored forces. Depend-ing on the size of the trees, their arrange-ment and the terrain, the armored vehicles can penetrate out of the established routes although this will be slow. A larger number of the troops are necessary for defense and attack but they should not be in vehicles, which is most often the usual situation. The afforested areas have an effect of sepa-

During winter, the units set up in the hous-es, huts, and in improvised shelters which brings out the need to deploy bigger forces to secure and take other precautions to pre-vent surprises. When possible, the positions should be at places that are protected from cold, wind and blizzard. Precautions should be made so that the military forces do not freeze, and there should always be drinks and warm food. It is necessary to take precautions to pre-serve the combat and physical readiness of the units and the functioning of the weap-ons, acquisition devices, vehicles and other technical assets. It is necessary to organize frequent changes of the combat plan, warming and resting of the units, to provide places shielded from cold, strong winds and snowstorms for the positions and the areas when possible, to provide warm food and drink for the people, winter oil for the vehicles and weapons, coolant, chains and other winter equipment, protection of the aiming devices, surveil-lance devices and so on. It is necessary to have frequent changes of the units on duty and to organize resting and warming of the people. The command and headquarters must pay more attention on raising the conscious-ness of the officers and the units and on the knowledge that even the most difficult assignments can be carried out successfully if they have proper preparations and if the people are trained to act in these conditions. The units that act in severe cold weather

conditions should be able to lead all types of operations effectively in which they have received extensive and appropriate training, but it should be known that execution of those operations will be extremely difficult. The most important aspect for the opera-tions in severe cold weather conditions is that the unit must be able to live and sur-vive in that environment if they want to be effective in the battle against the enemy. To the highest extent, the success will depend on the appropriate training and equipment. The operations in cold weather demand more support units in sustaining the opera-tive ability. The operations are usually carried out by smaller units and the organization of the assignments should be set before the beginning of the activity. It will be difficult to make adjustments during the operation.

Gjorgji Bojadziev/Kemo Gjozo

rating and canalizing the attack units. Those areas are suitable for the troops deployed in defense or in operation delay. Typically, the operation will be a series of isolated ac-tivities of smaller units. Sustaining the cohe-sion will be very expensive for the troops, so the commanders may have to accept empty areas that will not be covered. Due to the excellent operation camouflage, there is a bigger possibility for getting out of the wing positions, for infiltration and ambush, and smaller units can also have influence in the operation as compared to the size of the forces.

SPECIFICS OF THE OPERATIONS IN SEVERE COLD WEATHER CONDITIONS The operative setting and the influence of the meteorological phenomenon and the weather as an atmospheric phenomenon of conducting operations in severe cold weather in winter can seriously influence the preparation, organization and conduct of the operations. Winter has great influence because of the snow, ice, cold and the length of the day. Low temperatures and heavy snowfall have multiple affects on the performance of the people and the machinery, making it very dif-ficult and slowing it down, and often making the movement impossible. The planning is characterized by the in-creased weather norms, more complex preparations, increased use of the material and technical means, intensive following of the weather conditions, more complex situ-ation assessment and logistic support plan-ning. Because of the limited movement possibil-ity, more time is needed to prepare the op-erations. The winter slows down the prog-ress and grouping, and the maneuver and regrouping is made more complicated. For that reason, above all, demands are be-ing made on the command and the head-quarters to take more care in preserving the forces and the combat readiness of the units and for qualification in the use of the weapon and the technical assets. In winter time activities one has to take into consider-ation the danger of freezing, snow blindness and fast exhaustion of the people since the days are short, which means that the time for night time activities increases. Low temperatures, snow and strong winds exhaust people, especially while being a long time in an open space. As a consequence there is freezing, snow blindness and disori-entation due to seeming changes of the ter-rain. The low temperatures have a negative effect on the combat assets, especially on the automatic equipment and systems, mo-tor vehicles, electronics and power sources, and because of the cooling of the materials, the parts often tend to wear out and break. The shooting precision is smaller due to in-accurate estimate of the distance, and the effect of the grenades and mines is reduced in the snow. Very low temperatures (below -20°C) affect the psychophysical condition of the combat units and reduce their working and combat abilities. The colds can turn into epidemic, which in certain conditions can take out en-tire units from battle, while the frostbites can leave permanent damage. As a result of the difficult supplying, the units fill their ammunition supply and other means above the usual norm, and the back-ground units position themselves closer to the position of the other elements of the battle arrangement, in less populated areas, forests etc.

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ilitary Academy is a high educational institution which educates candidates not only for the ARM needs, but also for Crisis Management Center (CMC) and the Directorate for Protection and

Rescue. The Military Academy is an associ-ate member of the University “Goce Delcev” in Stip and it works in compliance with to the European Credit Transfer-system. In ad-dition to the education of the staff for the defense needs, there are professional oc-cupation courses for ARM officers. One of these courses is the pilot course for com-pany commanders of services and logistic specialties of ARM which were realized dur-ing the month of April.Expressing satisfaction from the fact that for the very first time in the Republic of Macedonia started realization of such a course, at the beginning of the course the attendees were welcomed by the Dean of the Military Academy, COL PhD Rose Smi-levski, who wished them successful work.The aim of this course was to enable the attendees for commander duties through acquiring basic notions for the way of or-ganization, planning and realization of the mission at company level (infantry, artillery, company of armored mechanized unit, en-gineering company, ABNCW (Atomic Bio-logical Nuclear Chemical Weapons) com-pany, artillery-rocket units for anti-aircraft defense company, liaison company and logistic company), as well as enabling the attendees to perform national and joint military operations and operations of non-military character.Course assignments:– enabling the attendees for organization

and management with the personnel of the company’s command and the unit in the preparations for mission execution;

– enabling the attendees in realization of

Control of knowledge and grading of the attendees was performed through moni-toring the activities during teaching, moni-toring their engagement in the practically applied part of the teaching and through a check of separate subject materials. After graduating from the course, the attendees were given certificates.The realization of the course for compa-ny commanders of services and logistic specialties was entirely in accordance with the activities of the commands and the units within ARM, regarding provision of professional military help, instructions, securing locations (ranges, firing ranges, exercise grounds), and especially in rela-tion to realizing the combined tactical ex-ercises and command-staff exercises, as well as the planned visits.The justification and the set-up of the course were checked through the practical realization of the course, regarding the se-lected course regime and the length of the course and also the structure of schooling, i.e. representation of the subject materials and planned exercises.One of the many significant dimensions of the course was the openness to exter-nal collaborators who enriched the con-tent and the syllabus of the course with their experiences from their engagement in military missions and in missions of non-military character in the country and abroad and delivered their acquired expe-riences to the attendees and familiarized them with the new things in the tactical and operational military doctrine, as well as the new things in the application of the contemporary management systems for administrative-technical support in the process of making up decisions in the mili-tary, resources management and similar.

Z.R.

training and executing the basic tactical exercises and drilling out the basic tacti-cal units at company level;

– developing leadership capabilities and capabilities to make fast and quality de-cisions in response to the set mission goals;

– enabling the attendees for military deci-sion making, developing the capability of finding real answers and making the right decisions as an answer to the contempo-rary challenges of the battle field;

– developing the capabilities of adminis-trative-technical management with the approved resources;

– developing the endurance in the work with the capability of short and concise speaking with high level of presenter ca-pabilities, as well as public performance.

The length of this study program for the attendees lasts for four weeks or one month. Education is realized in accor-dance with the approved Curriculum of the Studies by the Teaching Council of the Military Academy which is made in co-operation with the GS of ARM, with the NATO Advisory Team and with the BAH-team, as well as with the Plan for realiza-tion of the teaching process with every generation of attendees, and after an approved decision or agreement by the Minister of Defense.The conditions and the way of course en-rollment, as well as other status issues are defined by the Military Academy Stat-ute which outcome from the ARM Officer Corps Development Concept.Regular teaching hours were the basic form of the teaching-educational process, and it was organized and realized through lectures, presentations, and work with syn-dicates, consultations, ana lyses, exercises and practically applied form of teaching.

CURRENTLY AT THE MILITARY ACADEMY

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ment and Teaching Personnel of the Military Academy where they were presented the curriculum and the syl-labus of the studies at the Military Academy and all supplementary forms of training that Macedonian cadets should face on their way of becoming officers.The inevitable and especially interest-ing part of the American cadets’ stay was the visit to the Air Force WING of ARM. The future officers of the USA Air Force attended the presented lectures with great interest and tried to use the professionalism and the knowledge of the Macedonian pilots to a great degree and unselfishly shared their knowledge and experi-

olonel Neal Rappaport and four ca-dets from the USA Air Force Acad-emy visited the Republic of Mace-donia recently. Their visit was upon initiative of Colonel Rappaport

who wanted to show to some of his students the country with its beauties which he had fallen in love with when he was the US Military Attaché to the Republic of Macedonia for two years. The delegation was a guest to the Military Academy “General Mihailo Apostolski” and to the Cadet Training Center at the Training Command.The recruits of both allied countries, the USA and Macedonia, through their morning activities, from getting up, their working out together, raising of the country’s flag and the parade, had an uncommon opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder and to feel the allied spirit. They had an opportunity to see for themselves in the common qualities and the dedication to the military discipline. They also realized that determination, persistence and decisiveness are characteristics which lead them through overcoming the difficulties and successful acquiring of the military skills and abilities.For the last several days, the cadets of the USA and the Republic of Mace-donia assured all present that their se-nior colleagues-officers who work and live together in the mission in Afghani-stan can be at ease because they will have their respectable successors.According to the program, the Delega-tion had a meeting with the Manage-

ences with the future pilots.At the end of their visit, the cadets from the USA expressed their admi-ration with the unusual visit and the wonderful memories that they will take with them from this country. They thanked Colonel Rappaport in front of everybody for choosing the Republic of Macedonia of all possible destinations. At their departure and saying goodbye to the Macedonian cadets after this short but fruitful meeting and friendship, like “brothers-in-military call” they firmly shook hands and instead of “farewell” said “good-bye” to each other.

MA Lazar Gjurov

MEETING OF THE ALLIED RECRUITS

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REVIEW OF THE NEW NUCLEAR STRATEGYrom a global security aspect, the events related to the nuclear arms reduction are especially interest­ing. At first, the new strategic

treaty on nuclear weapons or START­2 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was signed in Prague on 8 April between the President of the USA, Barack Obama and the President of the Rus­sian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev. It was followed by a Summit of the Heads of 47 nations on nuclear safety on 12 and 13 April, in Washington, and there will be a UN Conference on non­proliferation of nuclear arms in May. In this context, of course, we should point out the new nuclear strategy of the USA (with great changes from the previous one) which was published on 6 April 2010. All these events are of great importance for the security worldwide.

TREATY START-1The First Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START­1 was signed on 31 July 1991 between the USA and the former Soviet Union after almost ten years of hard negotiations. But five months later the Soviet Union fell apart and there were four new independent states: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, which had strategic nuclear arms. Even though certain steps for nuclear arms reduc­tion were taken for a few months in 1991 until the collapse of the Soviet Union, more significant activities for

its reduction were taken after 23 May 1992 when all four newly-established independent countries signed the Lisbon Protocol and by that all these countries as legal successors of the former Soviet Union became part of the Treaty START-1. However, in or-der to be fully into force this Treaty was to be ratified by the Parliaments of all involved countries. This proce-dure in the parliaments took a little bit more than three years. The final enforcement of the Treaty START-1 took place on 5 December 1994 at the Budapest Summit where the involved parties had confirmed that the Treaty was ratified in the parliaments of the START-1 signatories. According to the plan, this Treaty was to be valid for 15 years with a possibility of expanding the treaty for another 5 years pro-vided all involved countries came to an agreement. In the course of the first seven years, i.e. until 5 December 2001 all nuclear warheads were trans-ferred from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Also, Belarus and Kazakhstan disposed their strategic offensive arms, while Ukraine continued dispos-ing of its own respectably strategic of-fensive arms. According to the treaty START-1 until that period, the USA and Russia successfully reduced the num-ber of warheads to 6,000, i.e. they re-duced their nuclear arms by 30-40%, and Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine disposed of or transferred all their nuclear weapons from their territories.

TREATY START-2The President of the USA, Barack Obama and the President of the Rus-sian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, signed the long-awaited new treaty on strategic arms reduction or START-2 on 8 April, 2010 in Prague which obligates both countries to reduce significantly their nuclear potential. In addition, the President of the USA emphasizing the great collaboration with the Russian President stated, “A year ago in Prague I was talking about my vision to stop the proliferation of nuclear arms and my dream of a world without nuclear arms. That’s a long process which may not be finished even during my lifetime. But, I believe that the pursuit of this goal would push us away from the Cold War mentality, would strengthen the global regime for non-proliferation of nuclear arms and would make the USA and the world more secure” And the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Med-vedev thanked Obama for the great collaboration and said, “I am convinced that everything that has been done so far is only the beginning of the big road. I would be sorry if the relations be-tween Russia and the USA are directed only towards the limitation of the stra-tegic offensive arms; although this is our special responsibility. But we must also collaborate in the other areas be-cause that is important for our nations and for the situation worldwide”. Ex-pressing his hope that they had made a very significant step in that direction,

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closing part of their nuclear capacities, and the Ukrainian leader promised that the country would entirely dispose of the raw materials for nuclear weapons production. There was also a discus-sion about not having any limitations in the development of the programs for using nuclear material for producing nuclear energy and in that context the participants came to an agreement to deepen the collaboration with the In-ternational Agency for Atomic Energy which controls the nuclear potentials. Although the USA was hitherto against control of their nuclear capacities by international inspectors, at this confer-ence they agreed on being subjected to international inspections. A special emphasis at the conference was placed on two countries, Iran and North Korea that develop their own programs for nuclear weapons production. Certain sanctions had already been introduced against these two countries because of the infringement of the International Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and new sanctions will be dis-cussed at the UN Conference on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons which will be held in New York in May.From the aspect of global security, in my view, the number of nuclear weap-ons existing in the world today is a

minor problem compared to the issue how these weapons are controlled and stored and prevention from possible misuse of the nuclear potential by un-authorized people and organizations. As the USA and the Russian Federation are the leading nuclear forces in the world, this recently signed new treaty START-2 will certainly have a positive influence on security globally. It is very positive that 47 state leaders signed the Declara-tion of the International Conference on Nuclear Safety in Washington, as well as the new US nuclear strategy. We hope that the dream of the US President, Barack Obama, will become a reality one day and that the world will be set free of the intimidating nuclear weapons.

strengthening thus the trust and mu­tual understanding between Russia and the USA, the Russian President added that he considers the signing of the treaty on nuclear weapons reduction as a real historical event. With the new treaty START­2 they clearly defined the limit whereon the USA and Russia should further reduce their nuclear po­tential, lower than the limits proscribed by the previous treaty START­1 in 1991 that expired on 5 December 2009. With the new treaty which is already called “Prague Treaty” and which has to be ratified by the American Senate and by the Russian Duma, both parties will reduce their own nuclear weapons by about one third within seven years after its enforcement. WASHINGTON CONFERENCE ON NUCLEAR SAFETYOn 12 and 13 April 2010 there was a Conference of Heads of States on Nuclear Safety in Washington. At this conference hosted by the President of the USA, Barack Obama, 46 lead­ers were present as well as the UN Secretary­General, Ban Ki­moon, the President of the European Council, Her­man Van Rompuy and Director General of the International Agency for Atomic Energy, yukiya Amano. With the final declaration all countries­participants in the conference obligated to take strict safety measures to prevent radioactive material falling in the hands of unau­thorized people and being misused and

“A year ago in Prague I was talking about my vision to stop the proliferation of nuclear arms and my dream of a world without nuclear arms. That’s a long process which may not be finished even during my lifetime. But, I believe that the pursuit of this goal would push us away from the Cold War mentality, would strengthen the global regime for non-proliferation of nuclear arms and would make the USA and the world more secure”

PRESIDENT OF THE USA, BARACK OBAMA

“I am convinced that everything that has been done so far is only the beginning of the big road. I would be sorry if the relations between Russia and the USA are directed only towards the limitation of the strategic offensive arms; although this is our special responsibility. But we must also collaborate in the other areas because that is important for our nations and for the situation in the world”

PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION,

DMITRY MEDVEDEV

thus reduce the danger of nuclear terror­ism. They also agreed that nuclear power plants for energy production should use low enriched uranium which can not be used for making atomic weapons. In addi­tion, the host of the conference on nucle­ar safety, US President Barack Obama, stated, “All nations have supported the goal that I set in Prague a year ago ­ to secure all insecure materials in the world in four years. We do not have the illusion that it will be an easy process”. The con­ference participants agreed on disposing of part of their own nuclear potential and

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nvironment has a significant influence on human activities and hence on ev-eryday life. However, very often man does not take that into consideration.

ENVIRONMENT AS A FACTOR FOR THE QUALITY OF LIVINGThe quality of living of people directly de-pends on the quality and the conditions of the environment. People need clean air; otherwise they will suffer from problems and diseases of the respiratory organs. Water deficit in some parts of the world is the biggest reason for fatal diseases. Many live species important for the food chain can’t survive in polluted environment. The destruction of the ozone layer as well as the uncontrolled release and deposit

A lot of lava, remnants of coal from the excavations in the mines in the 19th and 20th centuries left vast regions near the coal mines totally incapable of securing vegetation. The mineral irrigations togeth-er with copper and other mining activities have polluted the rivers and springs with acids so that life in them is impossible. In many parts of the world there is still un-controllable cut of the forested areas even though there are many ways to control these situations. Without a proper fores-tation of the surfaces or without an ero-sion control vast regions with life are lost every year. Very often, important surfaces are lost because of the downpours, creat-ing wasteland thus the land is incapable of supporting any kind of a harvest.

ENVIRONMENT ECONOMY AND SECURITY

of hazardous materials in the waters and fields brings to unpleasant occurrences and causes disease in the animal world. Unfortunately, besides great scientific achievements in all areas of modern living, there have constantly been diseases and conditions that humanity can’t handle.

ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMYThe economic vitality of the state also depends on the environment. There are numerous examples of regions left un­populated and incapable of supporting any kind of development just because of the non­planned and unconscientious be­havior of people. A significant part of the destruction is caused by uncontrollable ex­ploitation of natural sources of the Earth.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE ENVIRONMENT TOWARDS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF HUMAN SOCIETY

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have a need to provide food for their in-creased population on the one hand, and the ones who are concerned about the natural sources which are destroyed if they are used uncontrollably.The international attention is increasingly focused on the control of the reasons which bring about global warming of the planet. Moreover, there is a significant disagreement among the countries about the proposed measures and actions. For example, the developed countries want to build new factories and to cut the forests because of new areas for industry devel-opment, and these activities contribute to the global warming of the earth. Neverthe-less, developed countries do not agree with the closure of the factories due to the

In the 20th century bigger part of the de-struction is caused by the factories. Un-controlled air emissions from the factories are a source of acid rains which gradually destroy the forest near the factories. Even more uncontrolled emission of polluted and hazardous materials from the facto-ries pollutes the rivers and springs to the extent that those waters cannot be used for domestic or industrial purposes.A state which unreasonably allows too big or reduced quantity of its valuable natural sources in order to satisfy the short term needs creates significant problems for the next generations. Many generations will need to go by to be possible for the de-stroyed forests to be replanted and the lost fertile soil if that is really possible. In some countries the governments import food forced to use the limited sources and with that activity to help their own citizens. Sometimes when the financial sources are exhausted, the countries think that it is necessary to turn to the international or-ganizations for help. Cleaning up the con-taminated sources and the soil polluted by the careless use of the mineral sources or by the emission of poisonous materials from uncontrolled industrial plants will cost a lot and it will take a lot of time to reno-vate them. Furthermore, the authorities should punish and warn the polluters and prevent other possible actions that could create worse and harder living conditions for the population.

ENVIRONMENT AS THE REASON FOR CONFLICTS Certain conditions of the environment of-ten are among the many factors which contribute to tension and potential re-gional or world conflicts. If the country is exhausting its own natural sources, the people may become dissatisfied. In some cases, there could be a civil war because of keeping or acquiring the other sources. In other cases, the population immigrates to other countries in search for better life. In any of these situations, the factories of these countries are ruined and the capa-bility to return and improve the life of the population is getting less and less pos-sible. Then, tensions arouse even in the countries where the government supports the newcomers, but the population often makes problems with these emigrants.Destruction of the environment and na-ture can arouse tensions in the neighbor-ing countries. For example, many countries are hit by the “acid rains” which are very often created by emission of waste gases from the factories’ chimneys located in other countries. Also, some countries can-not use the water from the rivers which flow through their territory because the water has already been polluted by the un-controlled emission of waste material into the countries of its previous flow. In other cases, in some countries a lot of water from the riverbed is used for watering thus when the river flows in the next country, its water level is significantly decreased. In the last few years the tension between the countries is increasing concerning the natural sources management such as oceans and the atmosphere. Whale and fish industry attracts more attention and causes tension among the countries that

fact that they are the source of their good economic status.Another reason for the international ten-sion is the responsibility of some countries for control of the increased length of the hole in the ozone layer. Many countries, especially the ones to the north and south of the two hemispheres have signed inter-national agreements and take outstand-ing measures for eliminating the reasons which bring to the reduction of chemical substances found in the ozone layer of the Earth. Countries that are not directly con-cerned with this problem from economic reasons voted for non-signing of an agree-ment and for continuation of the chemi-cal substances production that make the ozone layer become thinner.

Elizabeta Tashkovska

MILITARY SECTOR – includes armed forces and defense administration responsible for supporting military activities.

ARMED FORCES – includes army personnel of any country, land forces, military navy, naval units and air forces.

ENVIRONMENT – includes air, water, earth, flora and fauna and archaeological and historical treasures.

GOVERNMENT – includes regular direction of the elected ministers and the other state bodies.

INDUSTRIAL SECTOR – includes commercial and government factories included in any type of production, where weapon production is involved and other materials for the armed forces.

LEGISLATURE – advisory body composed of representatives of bodies, responsible for passing laws.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES – includes city or state authorities that are responsible for making and enhancing of the local standards.

CONSERVATION – it refers to the protection of the natural and cultural treasures.

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DEFINITIONS WHICH WITH INTERNATIONAL ACCORDS, NEGOTIATIONS OR AGREEMENTS ARE USED IN ORDER TO

HELP THE ARMY OF ANY COUNTRY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS FOR PROTECTION OF THE HUMAN’S

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ight of May 1945. There were cel-ebrations all over the country that suffered. “The crowds of people were dressed in white, blue and red…. We were gathered near the

Buckingham Palace in London celebrat-ing together with the King” states the BBC correspondent about the celebra-tion of the end of war in Europe. In this issue of our magazine we have the hon-our to mark the 65 anniversary from the ratification of the surrender of Germa-ny, which officially signified the end of the war that took 70 million victims, in this part of the world.

THE END IS COMINGMassive counter-offensive of the Ger-man troops in Ardennes (16 December 1944) was a final desperate move of the German forces to turn the events on the western front in their benefit. Their goal was to conquer Antwerp, one of the major ports or the Allied troops. But the outcome from the German contra-offensive could have been predicted by January. The troops were defeated and the goal of Nazi leaders remained only an unfulfilled wish. Exactly then, in Janu-ary, Soviet troops entered Poland and southern Prussia. Next month, Soviets conquered Silesia and Pomerania, while on the west, the allies were approach-ing Rhine. In March, the allies crossed the river and imprisoned big number of German soldiers. The Soviets simultane-

ously reached Vienna. At the beginning of April, the allies progressed to Italy and western Germany, and the Soviet troops reached Berlin. On the historic 25th of April, both Armies encountered on the river Elba and after only five days, on the 30th April while the Russian troops were only meters away from the bunker, Ad-olf Hitler, the man responsible for the bloodiest war in history of mankind, put a gun on his head and with only one shot the red curtain went down. The horror show was over and his suc-cessor, Admiral Carl Doenitz got the re-sponsible task to end the fights on the western front.

INSTRUMENT OF SURRENDER With the end of the war being in the air, the preparations for a legal document began. British, American, Soviet repre-sentatives worked on that document all through 1944 in the European Advi-

65 YEARS FROM SIGNING THE ACT OF UNCONDITIONAL MILI-TARY SURRENDER OF NAZI GERMANY

A DAY TO REMEMBER

„WE SHALL NOT FLAG OR FAIL. WE SHALL GO ON TO THE END. WE SHALL FIGHT IN FRANCE, WE SHALL FIGHT WITH GROWING CONFIDENCE AND GROWING STRENGTH IN THE AIR, WE SHALL DEFEND OUR ISLAND, WHATEVER THE COST MAY BE. WE SHALL FIGHT ON THE BEACHES, WE SHALL FIGHT ON THE LANDING GROUNDS, WE SHALL FIGHT IN THE FIELDS, AND IN THE STREETS, WE SHALL FIGHT IN THE HALLS. WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER!“

WinsTon ChuRChill , spEECh To ThE housE of Commons , 1940.

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1. ORIGINAL DOCUMENT OF THE CA-PITULATION INSTRUMENT

2. THE BIG THREE AT THE YALTA CON-FERENCE, THE AGREEMENT FOR UNCON-DITIONAL SURRENDER OF NAZI

sory Commission (EAC). It is inter-esting that the Commission pre-dicted and suggested a request for total capitulation of Germany since the beginning of 1944. The Commission proposed the docu-ment to be signed by the German High Command as well, in order to prevent the repetition of the “stab- in - back”, legend created in the First World War, when Ger-man Militarist did not take the re-sponsibility for the defeat, since the instrument of surrender was signed by representatives of the German government only. Not everyone agreed with the predic-tions that Germany will surrender under one leadership (Lord Wil-liam Strang considered that the war may end by the individual surrender of German Command-ers). Discussiosn moved in direc-tion to make an agreement for complete surrender of Germany led by one Government.

REQUESTS OF THE SMALLER ALLIED COUNTRIESOn the EAC meeting held on 14th March 1945 the representatives of the remaining smaller coun-tries had their own requests to be included in the instrument of surrender concerning them in specific. Here are some of their requests:THE CZECH REPUBLIC: The Czech government proposed that the document include a paragraph against acquisition of territories by force and mention-ing the responsibility of the Ger-man state for the war. BELGIUM, THE NETHER-LANDS AND LUXEMBURG: The governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, concerned with their positions as small Allied nations, recommend-ed that the instrument of sur-render should include a specific acknowledgement of the part to be played by the small countries in the control of Germany. NORWAY: As a country which was completely occupied by Ger-mans, the Norwegian represen-tatives requested the document to include specific reference to the demand of surrender of the German troops in Norway.YUGOSLAVIA: The Yugoslav rep-resentatives declared its inten-tion to refrain from any specific recommendations until an agree-ment on government unity was reached between Tito and Prime Minister Ivan Šubašić. GREECE: The Greek government re-quested that a demand is included in the document to all German forc-es that may remain on Greek terri-tory at the moment of surrender to surrender their military equipment to the Greek Royal government.

Reich President, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz. Walter Bedell Smith signed on behalf of the Western allies, and Ivan Susloparov on be-half of the Soviets. French Major General François Sevez signed as the official witness.It should be mentioned that the United States and Britain acted on behalf of all Allied forces, whereas France, Germany and the USSR acted individually. It is interesting that there was a second instrument of surren-der, signed after midnight (CET) on 8th May, at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in Berlin. This ratification was a re-sponse to both Soviet and Brit-ish concerns. The Soviets desired a signature in the presence of the Soviet Supreme Commander Marshal Zhukov, while the Brit-ish wanted the surrender to be signed by the highest military and civilian representatives of the German Reich, in order to avoid a repeat of the stab-in-the-back legend.It was agreed to have the act ratified with the signatures of the commanders in chief of the German army, air force and ma-rines, who were brought to the Soviet command in Berlin. The representatives of the United Kingdom, France and the United

WINDS OF FREEDOMThe hands on the clock showed 02:51 hours, the day was May 7th,1945. At that particular mo­ment in an old redbrick school­house in Rheims, France which served as the Supreme Head­quarters for Allied Expeditionary Force the first instrument of agreement was signed. It was in effect as of 23:41 hours on 8th May 1945.The unconditional surrender of the German armed forces was signed by Alfred Jodl, on behalf of the High Command of Ger­man armed forces and the new

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States entered the dining room of the officers’ mess in the Headquarters shortly before midnight. The German delegation entered the room shortly after midnight after Marshal Zhukov, the Soviet representative, had opened the ceremony. The ratification of the German Act of Unconditional Surren-der was signed around 00.15 hours, after its regulations had already been in effect for over an hour (23:01 Central European Time).

TEXT OF THE INSTRUMENT OF SURRENDERFurther down we present the integral text of the first instrument of surren-der signed in Rheims:1. We the undersigned, acting by au-thority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expe-ditionary Force and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command all forces on land, sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.2. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German mili-tary, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8 May and to remain in the positions occupied at that time. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scut-tled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment.3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate com-manders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expedi-tionary Force and by the Soviet High Command.4. This act of military surrender is with-out prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a whole.5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Soviet High Command will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.

OFFICIAL END OF WORLD WAR II – JAPANESSE INSTRUMENT OF SURRENDEROfficial end of WW II came after sev-eral months due to the continued war in the Pacific. Namely, the Japanese instrument of surrender was signed on 2nd September 1945 aboard US naval ship “Missouri” in Tokyo Bay. On that day later referred to as “Day of Victory over Japan” on the signing ceremony were representatives of the Empire of Japan, USA, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Australia, Dominion of Canadian, Provisional Government of France, the Kingdom of Netherlands and the Dominion of New Zealand. The ceremony during which the offi-cial document was signed lasted 23 minutes and was broadcasted world-wide. The instrument of surrender was signed by the Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japa-nese Government and General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff on behalf of the Japanese Imperial Gen-eral Headquarters”. On the side of the winners, the under-signed were U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Com-mander for the Allied Powers, and as witnesses, U.S. Lieutenant General Jon-athan Mayhew Wainwright IV and Brit-ish Lieutenant General Arthur Percival.

CELEBRATING PEACEA large number of people went out on the streets of the devastated city of London to mark the end of the war in the European part. The crowd celebrated from Trafalgar square to Buckingham Palace where King George VI, Queen Elisabeth and Sir Winston Churchill appeared on the balcony of the palace. Princess Elisabeth (today’s Queen of England) and her sister Prin-cess Margaret were allowed to walk into the crowed anonymously and be part of the big celebration. Even today in many countries 8th May (9th May in Russia and East European countries) is celebrated as the Victory day against Fascism.

Ivan Petrusevski

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RATIFICATION IN BERLIN,

8 MAY 1945

SOVIET UNIONMarshal Georgy Zhukov on behalf of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army.

UNITED KINGDOMMarshal Arthur Tedder as Deputy Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

UNITED STATESGeneral Carl Spaatz, Commanding USA Strategic Air Forces, as witness.

FRANCEGeneral Jean Lattre de Tassigny, Commanding First French Army, as witness.

NAZI GERMANY– Admiral Hans­Georg von

Friedeburg as Commander­in­Chief of the navy;

– Colonel­General Hans­Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the air force;

– Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as representative of the army.

n the previous issue of the maga-zine it became clear that within the indirect approach to modern coun-ter insurgency operations (COIN),

the combat operation can be generally classified in three categories:– civil-military operations,– combat operations and – information operations. Although in favour of this position is the sound argument that the same general classification can be applied within the direct approach, in this spe-cific case the indirect approach is char-acterized by emphasizing one or anoth-er group of operations (in this particular

Civil-military operations (Cmo) during indireCt approaCh when exeCuting modern Coin operations When an indirect approach is consid-ered, civil-military operations (later in the text CMO) during modern COIN should be primarily oriented toward meeting the needs of the local popula-tion in villages, towns and regions. (An idea to divide the populated areas like this comes from the approach to fo-cus on solving local problems through regional, towards central-inductive rather that deductive method). As stated above CMO during modern COIN must not be isolated from the combat operations and the informa-tion operations. This conclusion came out of previous discussions referring to modern COIN, related to providing safe environment in which govern-mental institutions (institutions of the country supported in executing COIN) could respond to the needs of the population. When planning and executing CMO as part of the overall campaign of COIN the following should be considered:– CMO must be in accordance and completely integrated with the plans of the political and military leaders (local authorities or designated civilian politicians supporting the country) who are the most responsible for the coun-

E X E C U T I N G

COINCOUNTER INSURGENCY OPERATIONS (COIN)-IX

case civil­military operations and infor­mation operations). The classification of military operations during modern COIN is to systemize them properly. Terrain leaders and their planners should bear in mind that the level of operation (by emphasizing the first, the second or the third category) should change during COIN operations according to the ter­rain. These civil­military operations can­not be performed without informative shaping of operational environment, which means executing information op­erations as well. In order to explain the indirect approach we will first present the civil­military operations.

49

1. LOCAL POPU-LATION RECEIV-ING HUMANI-TARIAN AID

2. TALKING TO THE LOCAL LEADERS

3. GENERAL EIKENBERRY, CURRENT US AMBASSADOR TO AFGHANI-STAN

50

try where these operations are executed (e.g. In Afghanistan or the case with Iraq); – as part of the overall cam-paign these operations should be initiated immediately when there are adequate conditions;– intelligence and psychological operations (hereinafter PSYOP) as part of information opera-tions (hereinafter IO) are man-datory while CMO are in prog-ress;– effective local government is crucial for success of CMO (this adds up to the previous conclu-sion of Lawrence of Arabia, and

the directions McCrystal gave to coalition forces at the end of last year in Afghanistan). Command and Control during Civil-military operations Leaders must make a structure, besides other things (mainly for COIN) for execution of CMO (usually it is one structure to avoid overlapping). In regions where such structure does not exist its forming is obligatory.

Execution of command and control for COIN, as well as for CMO, must be through the so called security coordinative cen-ters. In order to be successful these centres should have rep-resentatives of military forces, other institutions of the host country, military and civil rep-resentatives of the coalition forces (if these operations are under the mandate of the UN they are called UN forces).Practice showed that the chief of these centres must be a military person or a civil ad-ministrator (designated by the

UN Secretary General, or the most powerful country if it is the coalition of will i.e. opera-tions not under mandate of UN e.g. mission in Iraq or Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan). The most important element, which should run the “show” within CMOs, is the so called Civil-Mili-tary Committee. The Civil-Military Committee al-ways has an advisory role. Its members should be represen-tatives of leading economic and social groups, which are on the top of their particular domain. This means that the local popu-lation must not be excluded form them. On the contrary, the participation of the local popu-lation serves as a benchmark when estimating the quality of CMO, which directly affects the COIN legitimacy. This leads to conclusion that military leaders must be pre-pared for different organiza-tions related to commanding and functioning in general (this once again confirms the conclu-sion that traditional approach in COIN should be avoided). In order these centres to suc-ceed in fulfilling their function, resources must be established and allocated correctly. This ad-justment must be coordinated with terrain situation and in ac-cordance with detailed terrain analysis, which was also men-tioned previously. (It should not be generic and by default for the whole territory especially in multicultural societies such as Iraq and Afghanistan).

ResouRce allocationEstablishment of coordination centers during CMO must not exclude the reality on terrain. Consequently military leaders must consider the fact that there will be other actors on terrain such as NGOs, private international corporations, pri-vate companies from the host country, governmental repre-sentatives etc. ( Official politi-cal representatives nominated by the UN, or the lead nation in the coalition. It is not excluded to have representatives from different countries with coali-tion of will). In this operations very often non-military, political personnel, mentioned above, is appointed for the highest functions. Besides the political-administrative part, the civilian part may consist of civilian ex-perts in different departments e.g. economy, law etc.). A key to success of CMO, which is the main reason these cen-

tres are formed, is coordina-tion of the military operations with the efforts of the civilian components. When there is no civilian personnel, according to the USA approach instead of a civilian, often a military person is nominated as the leader (es-pecially in the early phases of COIN). What must not lack dur-ing the coordination is the fact that each activity during CMO must be related to economic, social, psychological and po-litical objectives. Thus the ac-tivities must include this type of programmes (programmes focused to fulfill this). If there are no sufficient civilian resources, (which is often the case) military resources are put in function of the population needs. For example, engineer units participate in supporting the infrastructure, military med-ical personnel looks after the health of the population, legal advisors give support for estab-lishing institutions responsible for implementation of legal regulations, and military police units control traffic and assist in forming local police structures. It is clear that the idea be-hind the existence of CMO is to serve as a bridge between population and the institutions so as to form a solid ground for the system in a particular country. In latter phases ( e.g. phases for support by civil au-thorities, i.e. from the whole campaign of CMO) of the cam-paign CMO should fill in the gap between local authorities and fragile (if there is any) central government. The idea and the ability to establish and later on to connect local and central ad-ministrative and political struc-tures are key to the success of the indirect approach of COIN. This is particularly important since the success of COIN de-

(e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq be-fore General Petraeus). This leads us to another conclusion, which occurred in previous dis-cussions. It is related to the ed-ucation level of military leaders, which is necessary if they are to be successful (only military education is not sufficient to meet these standards). CMO coordination is always in the framework of national interests of the coalition partners (for op-erations of the Coalition of will) i.e. countries donators (when operations are under the man-date of the UN).On a tactical level, this coordi-nation is performed through the central centre which could but does not have to be part of a Headquarters of the armed forces of a particular country. On a strategic, (central) level and on a tactical (local) level the objectives of CMO are the fol-lowing:– to contribute for develop-ment of the overall system in the country where modern COIN is performed.– to gain support, loyalty and legitimacy from the local popu-lation The principles of the CMO must be in direction to: – protect resources and devel-opment of economy– adjust to directions given by the chain of command.Despite everything, all the ac-tivities during CMO (which are usually called projects) have to be coordinated with the needs of the population. Thus it is necessary to understand culture, traditions and the real needs of the population. This directly leads to the educa-tion level of each operator, in-cluding the leaders, as well as another assumption stressed previously that there is no place for “defaults” during a modern COIN, even in the frameworks of a campaign. In other words, what functions well and is a priority for the population in one region of the country does not imply that the same thing will function or will be a priority in another region of the same country where a campaign of modern COIN is executed. In the next issue of the maga-zine we will continue with the importance of the population for control of resources during CMO as part of the overall indi-rect approach in the process of modern COIN.

Ph. D. Metodi Hadzi-Јanev

pends on that (how much it is in accordance with the needs of the population and the po-litical directives for forming and establishing an overall system when building nations generally, i.e. COIN individually). With this goal military leaders should be ready to implement political directions into plans and also be prepared to give detailed analysis and advice on what should be changed, adapted to lead to success. The last is a case when the political directions are not in accordance with the conditions on terrain

51

4. A STEP FOR-WARD IN GAIN-ING PEOPLE’S TRUST

5. TRAINING OF THE LOCAL POLICE – EN-GAGED IN CMO

52

SILENT HUNTER 5 - DOES THE SPLENDOUR OF NAVAL BATTLES FADE?

AT FIRST GLANCE, WE WOULD ASK OURSELVES: IS IT TRUE THAT NO ONE GIVES YOU A TREAT WITHOUT A GOOD REASON? THIS YEAR UBISOFT ROMANIA RE-LEASED THE NEW SEqUEL TO ONE OF THE BEST FRANCHISES DEDICATED TO POWERFUL AND DEADLY SUBMARINES, WHICH WERE DECISIVE TO A GREAT EX-TENT IN WINNING THE BATTLES IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR....NEVERTHELESS, DOES THIS NEW PRODUCT SATISFY OUR GROWING APPETITES?

FIRE IN THE MIDDLE

OF THE OCEAN

53

SILENT HUNTER 5 - DOES THE SPLENDOUR OF NAVAL BATTLES FADE?

the captain is “de facto” positioned in the first person view, he can walk around the submarine, talk to his colleagues and give orders. The above mentioned graphics is especially noticeable during an attack. As you run along the corridors, you can see water coming inside all over the hull. Ac-tually , I do not expect anything less than that, bearing in mind the system that you should have in order to enjoy the “recom-mended” pleasure. The whole story of this game should also be added as its significant advantage. You can feel the cold water of the Atlantic or the Pacific from the comfort of your home, and at the same time there are no guarantees that the level of stress will remain within the normal range. Anyone who has ever used any version of SH, knows how aw-fully difficult it is to incorporate all ele-ments of gaming in a way that your sub-marine would be in a winning chess - mat position. Do not forget that you are fight-ing against convoys of merchant ships, destroyers, cruisers which do not refrain from shooting the cylinder pipes which bring death - the torpedoes.

PROBLEMS ARE GROWING ...Given the first impressions of the gam-ers who have already had a chance to see the qualities of the game, I think that this paragraph would be much longer. All over the global network, gamers throw accusations and express their dissatisfac-tion. However, the journey of 1000 miles starts by a single step. My wish to some-how get the “tutorial” for the game was fulfilled. I do regret about it now. Boring! I think I said the same for the Sins of a So-lar Empire, but after making the compari-son, I realized that I made a big mistake. The tutorial which is offered for SH5 is a

54

real synonym for boredom. There is a de­scription on more than 30 pages, which explains everything except the basics of successful gaming. But we could be “happy” because we are entirely familiar with the detailed emotional conditions of each member of the crew. Completely irrelevant. The other critics agree ­ the new system of morale introduced in the game, which is based on the care of the captain for the members of his crew, is a big failure. The idea of the game devel­oper is not completely bad ­ the morale is accompanied with the personal charac­teristics and skills of the members, which are gradually developed (translated in the number of the accomplished mis­sions) giving us the opportunity to dive faster or reach greater final speed. Does anyone during a campaign think how is the navigator’s wife doing? Or about the dogs of the First Officer? And on top of that, if the captain does not care much, or if we do not give him an order to ask about these trivial things, the morale could plummet to such extent that the crew would not obey his orders. I think it is too much!I would like to mention the negative aspect of the new way of movement through the submarine. This concept would not be of any use when there is a need for quick decisions in order to ac­complish the mission (or to survive).

“INTERFACE” FEATURESThis is the new interface. The authors of critics claim that the interface is not an advantage of this sequel. According to them, some of the main elements which are important for effective management of the submarine are missing, as well as the real feeling that we are part of a

ilent Hunter… I remember more than a decade ago, the first sequel of this simulation was the reason I suffered from chronic lack of time,

especially with education related issues. To be part of one epic war in the Pacific, after all, was not such a minor thing. Ap-parently, I was not the only one who was overwhelmed by positive impressions. Even though there was a big pause be-tween the first and the second sequel, due to the change of the company which developed the game, Silent Hunter (SH) continued its resolute stride in time. SH 3 appeared focused on “ The second battle of the Atlantic”, as well as SH4, which glued us to the monitors in the same way as SH1, in an American submarine which led us through the acts of the Pacific play. The fifth sequel to the famous simu-lation takes us back to the waters of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. At least, that’s what they say...

DRM, WHAT IS IT?It is said that if the bad news is told first, its strength will be diminished. I de-cided to follow this advice, since there are small chances to feel the incredible graphic engine of SH5 in our well known circumstances. But, let’s get back to the notorious DRM, that is to say „digital rights management“ copy protection. The basics of this on - line platform is the fact that once the first time the game is launched, each gamer has to check the au-thenticity of the product, and in addition, in order to be able to play the game, you have to be on -line all the time during the game. On top of that, no one can even think of reselling it. I will emphasise once again, although it has been crystal clear from the very beginning. Silent Hunter 5 uses this DRM solution. Sad, isn’t it? Ac-cording to the news, the problems start-ed within 24 hours of the game’s release on the market. Short break in the middle of the game, difficulties with logging in, and a complete failure of the server (for 5% of the users on the 7th of March). The final goal of Ubisoft has been achieved. At least for the time being. To date, no one has ever managed to make a crack to SH5, although parts of the game were immediately unlocked and enabled. Therefore, the extremely negative re-sponse on the part of the gamers is to be expected. The percentage of gamers who are not willing to buy the game just because of the DRM, remains relatively high: 75-84%. Negative comments in-clude the idea that most of the people do not have a broadband Internet, the Internet connection has a limited transfer, and of course, the fear that the server of Ubisoft would have frequent problems and cracks.

ADVANTAGES What does Silent Hunter 5 really offer? Unfortunately, in this case my own expe-rience would not be beneficial, although I have passionately played the previous se-quels of Silent Hunter. To be in a position to lurk and suddenly attack your notori-ous enemy can never be boring. On the contrary, SH offered me what is called „good time“ from the very beginning. Ac-cording to certain critics (and from what I have seen on the screen shots), the graphics is a state of the art. In the new SH5, the gamer faces 3D environment, mainly inside the submarine. It is because

submarine from the World War II. I remember the view from the peri-scope in SH2 . Rudimentary , yet realistic. In this sequel it is missing. The periscope is replaced by a tac-tical interface, that is to say, a mini map which looks like a GPS more than like a periscope produced in the mid 20th century. Do not even try to find the compass, in SH5 - it does not exist . Unfortunately, the list of draw-backs goes on. One example is artificial intelligence, which is ev-erything but stable. At one point, the time between the discovery of the submarine by the enemy air crafts or merchant ships and the arrival of battleships is mea-sured in seconds, whereas at an-other, you can send the ships to the bottom one by one, and no one would be concerned about that. The military harbours of the Royal Navy are not protected, which means they are always a good place to destroy anchored inactive enemy ships. Actually, it seems that the ships move in the harbours of the enemy and in their friendly posts without a ship navigator. Merchant ships could continuously crash into each other until they occasionally get on fire and destroy themselves. Even worse, they can go from one to the other end of the har-bours, which makes them less secure locations for your subma-rine. You would be disappointed

upon your return in the harbour, after submerging a whole enemy convoy, your submarine would be destroyed by friendly vessels which move around „without a compass?“

GRAPHICS- AT FIRST GLANCE EXCELLENT BUT ...There are frequent problems re-lated to the audiovisual elements of SH5. As I mentioned before, the graphics is a kind of “ feast” but there are some shortcomings which can be noticed through dif-ferent screen shots of the play-ers. It does not fit in the period in which the game should be placed. Everything seems to be like high - tech for the Second World War. Details are incredible (which can

tactics of the British – they will have minimal protection on these convoys, which will make the ocean going convoys more vulner-able to enemy attack. If the Ger-man submarines accomplish their mission successfully, most of the accompanying war ships will be neutralized, which will open the door of the German fleet into the Atlantic...”

WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHERIt is true that the number contrib-utes to defeating the enemy. It is particularly obvious when you have a chance to play together with seven passionate gamers (if there are any who will pay for the original SH5). The missions are various, ranging from small groups of convoys to huge fleet attack which consists of merchant ships, war ships and even His Maj-esty, the aircraft carrier. The infor-mation that new missions for the multiplayer are constantly being formed, makes a positive impact and creates an impression that it will be one good point in this game (if we are looking for it). And if you do not get lucky, you can try a multiplayer mission, but on your own...

ANY FINAL WORDS?The fan base created by Ubisoft, with its hard work and “release” of excellent products like I, II,III

and even IV ( a sequel which struggled with errors and bugs) had the last word. It is important to fight against piracy on a global level, though not to such great extent. DRM must have an early retirement. It does not stop here. All the bugs and shortcomings in the fifth edition have to be over-come as soon as possible, in order to maintain the reputation which has been built by this franchise for more than ten years. Until then, being loyal fans of naval battles, we will focus our periscope on the enemy using the well known predecessors of this unfortunate sequel number five.

Ivan Petrushevski

be seen though the short videos) however, the drawbacks are even more incredible. Performances required even for the middle set-tings are quite high. Sometimes the errors in the graphics are so obvious that make this game which has just been released from the factory line look like one of the pioneers in the world of strategies. The icons at times resemble white dots, and the harbours at times simply dis-appear from the screen. At least the people are real - they pace back and forth the deck of their destroyed ships while they are burning with high intensity. When it comes to the quality of the audio part, I can not confirm anything. Though, I will share with you one critical view. There are huge problems caused by the au-dio. You would immediately like to turn off those boring phrases like “Would you like to plot a new course, captain?” which come up every time you reach a particular waypoint” said one of the critics of Gamespot .

WHAT IS TO BE EXPECTED OF THE CAMPAIGN?The main long term goal of the gamer is to cut off the channels of transportation of goods to the British Isles. Having in mind that the Royal Navy is much bigger than the small German Navy, little U - boats are some of the main

offensive weapons. Taking into consideration the fact that Britain depends on the imported goods from the mainland or from the colonies, Germans try to destroy the British power to fight and to demotivate British people, by de-stroying the biggest part of their merchant fleet. In order to show one example which each gamer can be faced with during one sce-nario, I will present one authentic text taken from the official web-site of SH5.“Convoys of merchant ships go along the determined trans-Atlan-tic routes. Most of the convoys sail without escort, relying only on the air cover provided from the mainland. Each attack on a convoy could cause change in the

55

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ly important for the Japanese army. The bridge was supposed to be built by the Prisoners of War from the Japanese prison camp conducted by the extremely obses-sive camp Commander Colonel Saito. The film is rich with very interesting mainly male characters. There is the character of the rigid Colonel Nicolson (starred by Alec Guin-ness) who enters has an argument with Colonel Saito reminding him that Geneva Conventions exempt officers from manual labour. Each of them has an opposing at-titude which results in impermissible inter-ruption of the bridge construction. Here the plot unwinds. Although it seems that film’s main theme is the fight between these two titans, Nicolson and Saito, the importance of other characters is easily no-ticed; an American officer (William Holden), a typical model of an antihero who was

56

ar is a motive very often used in the seventh art. This is probably because in such dreadful moments people could react completely different than they would in normal life. Another

reason might be the fact that war could pull out people’s best or the worst characteris-tics, to make somebody a hero or a biggest coward. This is why we got the idea of reviewing a few war films, films that have made a sig-nificant impression on us as people without being ambitious to be film critics. We would like to write about those films that have moved us, films that have become time-less or may become such, war films we talk about with delight and recommend to our friends, films that make us feel euphoric or depressed, sad or happy, furious or sympa-thetic. When we started planning our work we became aware exactly how many such films we have at our hands. For a moment it took us back in childhood reminded of that feeling when staring at the toy shop window we could not choose a favourite toy.My dilemma didn’t last for long. I decided for my most favourite film of all, a film I saw maybe thirty years ago and I still vivid-ly remember it – “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. I didn’t even know that the film was released in the distant 1957, a film which is still very interesting to watch and is consid-ered one of the unforgettable films of all times. Directed by David Lean, based on the novel “The Bridge Over the River Kwai’ written by the French novelist Pierre Boulle. Although a work of fiction, basing it on cer-tain historical information, the inclusion of some real occurrences and the convincing acting would easily persuade many viewers that the film conveys a real event.“The Bridge on the River Kwai”, Lean’s epic war picture, is a film that made the director’s name stardom. Lean, virtually unknown outside the United Kingdom, was not the first choice for director of the film. Producer Sam Spiegel said that David Lean was chosen “in absence of anyone else”. It was a huge project so “Columbia Pictures” considered the names of many directors among them John Ford, William Wyler, Howard Hawks and Orson Welles. Although this decision might seem naïve, Lean and his associates made something of an extraordinary importance.

A THRILLING PLOT“The Bridge on the River Kwai” follows the events in Burma in 1943 during the con-struction of a bridge which was significant-

REVIEW OF THE FASCINATING “THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI”

FROM CREATIVE OBSESSION TO MADNESS

THE SCREENWRITERS, CARL FOREMAN AND MICHAEL WILSON, WERE ON THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST AND COULD ONLY WORK ON THE FILM IN SECRET. THE TWO DID NOT COLLABORATE ON THE SCRIPT; WILSON TOOK OVER AFTER LEAN WAS DISSATISFIED WITH FOREMAN’S WORK. THE OFFICIAL CREDIT WAS GIVEN TO PIERRE BOULLE (WHO DID NOT SPEAK ENGLISH), AND THE RESULTING OSCAR FOR BEST SCREENPLAY (ADAPTATION) WAS AWARDED TO HIM. ONLY IN 1984 DID THE ACADEMY RECTIFY THE SITUATION BY RETROACTIVELY AWARDING THE OSCAR TO FOREMAN AND WILSON, POSTHUMOUSLY IN BOTH CASES

made hero by circumstance, as well as a team of British commandos who act in the rear line, soldiers who sacrifice their lives in order to blow up the bridge which will help their armies reach their target. First part of the film gives the detailed characteristics of the two colonels – pride and honour. Neither of them wants to give up his beliefs. The criti-cal moment and the decisive factor is the fact that one of them has a lot to lose unlike the other. Nicolson, whose nobility glows throughout the whole film becomes a synonym for the British Army, a synonym of a leader capable of maintaining his people’s moral on a high level, a syn-onym of a creator and organizer who proves that the unreachable could be reached confirming the benefit of the civilization he descends from. His vic-tory over Saito in the fight between the two of them is a victory of the British way of living. Nicolson is blind-ed by the so-called virtues; he forgets where he is and what his priorities should be. In the second part of the film the di-rector takes us to a hospital in Ceylon where the escaped Shears arrives. He there meets (not by his will) the explosives expert, Major Worden who is completely committed to destroy Nicolson’s extraordinary cre-ation. He is a distinguished member of the British Army Special Forces, commandos who conduct diver-sions in the rear line of the belliger-ent forces. He has no dilemma about blowing up the bridge. He blackmails Shears to return to the camp, he sacrifices his own and the lives of his servicemen; he uses all possibilities to accomplish his goal. The character who connects these two parts is none the less interest-ing; the officer of the USA Navy, Ma-jor Shears – prisoner in the Japanese camp who does everything possible to survive. He takes the valuables off his dead comrades and uses them to bribe the Japanese guards to send him to work in the hospital instead to work on the bridge’s construction. He organizes a prison break out al-though he is aware it is not possible. He does this because he simply can-not bear the living conditions in the camp. After he manages to escape he spends blissful days recovering in

green environment and just in a sec-ond we are stressed by the sight of many graves by the rail tracks and we realize that the train carries prisoners to the prison camp. The method of presenting details is very attractive – British soldiers marching in shabby boots proudly entering the camp.Nature has a special place in the film. A fantastic scenery of peaceful life in the jungle of Burma – a river quietly flowing and villagers’ serene daily routine. The film language David Lean uses in this film is rich of opposites: the beauty of nature opposed to the ugly reality of con-struction site of death; kind villagers opposite stiff military command-ers; Nicolson’s creativity opposite Warden’s destructivity; Nicolson’s high morale opposite Shears’ crimi-nal astuteness. All these combined with the stubborn fight of attitudes between the representatives of two different civilizations (Nicolson and Saito) leads to a madness which guarantees a devastating develop-ment of events and starts a “fire” in the beautiful den of nature.I often asked myself what fasci-nates me the most about this film. I wondered how a young girl could so easily be ushered in a war film, in a male’s film. This is so because may-be I was trying to identify myself with each of the characters. I was delighted by Nicolson’s persistence, organization and creativity, I felt sor-ry for Saito as a man trapped in the shackles of his ideology, I admired Shears’ ability to survive, I respected Warden’s superhuman efforts to accomplish the task and I am not sure how all this led to a madness when they all tried to carry out their mission. This is how we can see the message of this masterpiece. We should learn from these people’s mistakes, realize that people cannot live isolated, that sometimes be-yond our wish to do all the best, her majesty the universe wants to play games with us. “The bridge on the River Kwai” is a timeless film which greatness will never be questioned. Alec Guin-ness’s magnificent performance and marvelously conducted scenes by David Lean make this film engraved in our consciousness.

Biljana Ivanova

the hospital in Ceylon in a company of a lovely nurse.He pays his biggest sin with his life. He and the Navy Commander sur-vive the sinking of their ship, but the Commander is subsequently killed by a Japanese patrol. “Shears” switches dog tags with the dead officer hop-ing to get preferential treatment in captivity. It doesn’t work but then he doesn’t have a choice but to con-tinue the impersonation. Knowing all this, Warden threatens him with court martial. In order to avoid being charged with impersonating an offi-cer, and offence punished by death, Shears “volunteers” the mission to take the demolition team of com-mandos to the place he only knows. Although being blackmailed, Shears

is very well aware of the importance of the mission. His only aim is to stay alive and go back home, but being at a place he hasn’t chosen, at the crucial moment he sacrifices his life showing that heroes are not made heroes, they are born. This is the mo-ment when Colonel Nicolson comes to his senses, unfortunately too late. The film creator gives him a chance for his soul salvation; he falls on the explosive’s detonator and blows up his marvelous creation.

WAR IN THE MIDDLE OF PARADISEDavid Lean creates wonderful scenes. We are led into the film by the train moving through a peaceful

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This section is dedicated to the SOLIDER – the PERSON who is always at the front line in the winds of war – the PERSON who is highly motivated to defend his/her own, motherland and ideas – the PERSON with the best physical and psychological preparedness – the PERSON who has left a part of his/her soul home with his/her family – the PERSON, who at the end of the day, is only HUMAN. Therefore, he/she is an inspiration to many films that have left a strong impression on the impartial general public, films that have thrown our emotions in the air and films that have shown us actual cruelty of war and its effect on people.In the following editions of SHTIT we will recapitulate some of those films without any special desire of becoming film critiques. We only want to convey part of our feelings and show you that a soldier’s human destiny can change our perception regarding the life values, and moreover underline that the soldier’s difficulty and hard working life filled with sweat and tears deserves our utmost RESPECT.

“THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI” WON SEVEN “OSCAR” AWARDS, AMONG WHICH THE BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR – LEGENDARY BRITISH DIRECTOR DAVID LEAN, AND BEST ACTOR - ALEC GUINNESS, BEST WRITING PIERRE BOULLE THE AUTHOR OF THE NOVEL ON WHICH THE FILM WAS BASED

THE SONG COLONEL BOGEY MARCH ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN 1914, WILL BE USED IN ONE SCENE IN “THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI” 43 YEARS LATER. MANY OF YOUNGER AND OLDER GENERATIONS REMEMBER THE SONG THE SOLDIERS WHISTLE. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE SOUND SCORE EVER PERFORMED ON THE BIG SCREEN EVER

Title of the original:

Lawrence FreedmanTHE REVOLUTION IN STRATEGIC AFFAIRS

Publisher: MAGOR, Skopje, 2009

ear readers, this book is also part of the program of the Government of Macedonia for translation of 500 specialized, scientific books and course books used at the best and

most distinguished universities in the USA and the EU.This, by itself, is a sufficient recommen-dation to pay due attention to the book, that is, to be read. In case it needs addi-tional argumentation and motivation, it is adequate to stress at the very beginning that this is a book by one of the leading, most eminent analysts on military issues in the contemporary world, but on the other hand, the book is actually a study of only about 80 pages, written in 1998, but actual in its theme and contents, which may be a sufficient challenge the book to be found in your hands as well. Lawrence Freedman is a professor of military studies and head of the School for Social Studies and Public Policy of the Royal College in London – the United Kingdom. Prior to this, he was the head of the political studies at the Royal In-stitute for International Issues. He was educated at the universities in Manches-ter, York and Oxford, where he worked as a researcher as well as at the Interna-tional Institute for Strategic Studies. He was elected for associate at the British Academy in 1995 and he is the winner of the acknowledgment “Commander of the British Empire”. In 1996 he was appointed the official historian of the Falkland War in 1997. He was elected the member of the official internal investigation in Britain for the Iraqi war in 2003.Freedman gave a significant contribution in the debate about the revolution of mili-tary issues. He wrote Revolution in Stra-tegic Issues, published in 1998, the book we recommend in this issue, which talks about the fact that the technological development indicates a new era in war conflict and war capabilities. Therefore, we recommend this book to those who are interested in Freedman’s viewpoints on these issues. The Revolution in Military Issues is a practical expression of the western way of warfare whose basic elements are: professional armed forces, intolerance towards victims, and intolerance of col-lateral damage. The term „revolution in military issues” was initially formed as a reference to his-torical debates about main changes in war-fare, which occurred in 16th and 17th cen-tury. Later on, the term was used to stress

the influence of nuclear weapons. The term had its own advantages as “a means of marketing”, giving the issues a dramatic character, connecting them in a way to deep transformation, although risking to turn the idea for revolution into something old fashioned and meaningless.Revolution means something more than just a transformation and certainly a lot more than merely a change in the much greater variety. It represents a moment of transformation. Those moments are not valued until they are studied by some later historians. Occasionally, the revolu-tion may previously be envisaged. Will it occur no matter the efforts of encourage-ment, or does it only represent a collec-tion of political goals that may be refuted or condemned by others? Will RMI, the same as political revolutions in the past, be considered as a change consisting of one step, approaching towards a new paradigm, or should it be a continual pro-cess, “a continual revolution” that needs a continual change? Can revolution be lim-ited to a country and still survive, or can it give roots only when it is present all over the world? This book claims that several changes are already in process which together can really be revolutionary in terms of their in-fluence, but it does not mean that these changes move only in one direction. Big part of the technical and technological development, in connection with RMI, may usefully be utilized in many situa-tions without causing anything that could approach war transformation. RMI in the purest form may be conducted only in specific and hopeless situations. Big part of what is considered to be the RMI is actually a military expression for “revolutions” in technological and busi-ness issues. The revolution in technologi-cal issues is the deepest and the least debatable, and based on a group of activ-ities connected with information technol-ogy including sensors, computerization and telecommunications. These activities obviously have dynamic influence on the process of decision making and effective usage of resources. This leads to revolu-tion in business issues, encouraging com-panies to become less adaptable, less hierarchical and more prepared to think globally. It is not surprising that many companies which are believed to have these characteristics are involved in com-mercial exploitation of new technologies. RMI depends on their products, and they are often presented as a model which is

to be followed in the war organization. From this reason, many RMI protagonists stress that they see in it something that involved organizational as well as techni-cal changes. One influential analysis shows that revo-lutions in war issues occur schematically, through interaction among technological changes, system development, functional inventiveness and organizational adapta-tion. This development leads to a connec-tion that “changes the character and con-flict leading from its roots”. This kind of analysis tends to underestimate political and social dimensions of the change, and still they have a deep impact on military capabilities. The questions: “Who fights? Against whom? What for?” determine the character and the leading of the con-flicts. In this book, the central point holds the claim that it is impossible to under-stand the sense of modern trends, with-out paying attention to the influence of the political changes on the military idea. The term military issues has a significant number of meanings. It refers to the or-ganization and the application of armed forces for the country benefit, and by that, the revolution may refer to the main disruptions in military equipment or politi-cal goals, or a combination of both. The significant changes in the international system from the last decade are added on the list of revolutions in the political issues. That is a consequence of the long term effects of the decolonization in com-bination with short term effects from the end of the Cold War and the increasing influence of the globalization.At the beginning of the 90s from the last century, there was a little coquetry with the concept of “the fourth generation” of war that referred to the fall of the old people’s states and traditional battles, as well as the unmeaningful traditional mili-tary forms and technologies, the conflicts that include sub-state / non-state groups, as well as ethnical militia and narcocar-tels. With the new political position, it is less likely that the great powers will start a war against each other, and it is more likely that they will find an opportunity to intervene in the conflicts that involve the small countries. In these conflicts, the development related with the technical and organizational revolutions may not be very significant. The tension between these two aspirations is actually the core of this study.

Juliana Stojanova, PhD

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Answer:

Dear Viktor,

Our gratitude for your kind words and have confidence that we will always dedicate sig-nificant space in our magazine for the special operations regiment.

Editorial board “Shield”

Answer:

Dear Vesna,

You have totally grasped the purpose of our newly introduced columns. This maga-zine is intended to the entire reading audi-ence therefore, you can always find topics interesting to everybody.

Best bregards, editorial board “Shield”

Answer:

Dear Ljupcho,

The introduction of the column “Global” result-ed from the need to affirm the activities of the organizations on the global scene as well as to speak about the issues that concern us in global frames. We are grateful that you share our opinion that this is of great importance to the wider audience.

Best regards, editorial board “Shield”

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE “WOLVES”

Your magazine is the best in the whole coun-try, completely devoted to your work which I like very much. You highlighted “the wolves” and their weapon in the best possible way. In other words, you are simply the best. Best re-gards to the special unit “wolves”, to your edi-torship and to the Ministry of Defense of RM.

Greetings,Viktor Nikolov

From 7 to 77

Hello,

The introduction of columns that refer to films, books and computer games re-freshes the magazine to great extent and makes it more interesting for reading to all age groups. The only thing I can add is to ask you to proceed in the same way and you have my whole support.

Vesna Jakimovska

BRAVO fOR “GLOBAL”

Respectable editorship,

I noticed that you have introduced a new col-umn “Global” which I think is a full hit. I really appreciate the articles referring to the inter-national organizations and together with the texts from the column “Magazine and Soft-ware” it is my favorite.

Ljupcho Stefanovski

Dear readers,

In our new magazine, we are implement-ing a new kind of direct contact with you - our respected audience. Taking in consideration that we value your opinion the most, we decided to dedicate this page to you. Please send us your propos-als, opinions and criticism to our e-mail: stit@morm.gov.mk

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